On Thursday, July 17th, at two o'clock in the afternoon, we struck camp
and started on a four-mile portage to the next lake down stream, as the
river-bed was too full of large boulders to navigate the strong current
with safety. It was hard work carrying the cargo and canoe through the
mosquito-stricken ironstone country, and we did not camp till midnight.
Here another bad omen was observed. Mackinlay and I had gone ahead,
after carrying over a load, to try and kill something for supper; we
found a musk-ox, but made rather a clumsy mess of killing it, and the
animal was badly heated before we finished it off. The meat was
consequently discoloured, and Saltatha declared this to be an unfailing
sign of some great misfortune at hand. The women had made us a few pair
of moccasins each, but not nearly enough for the tracking-work that we
should have to do when we turned up stream; and our stock of provisions,
instead of the bales of dried meat that we had expected to enable us to
travel without waste of time in hunting, consisted of ten dried
deers'-ribs, so full of maggots, from having been imperfectly cured,
that we threw them away on the second day out. Our flour and pemmican
had of course been finished long ago, and we drank the last kettleful of
tea before leaving Musk-ox Lake, but as the Labrador tea grows all over
this country in profusion, this did not much matter; tobacco too was
nearly at an end.
The lake was still full of floating ice, but we had no trouble in
passing the canoe into the river at the north end, and found the stream
considerably increased in volume by a couple of large tributaries that
come in from the opposite sides of the lake. After dropping down two or
three miles with a sluggish current, we heard the roar of a rapid, and
put ashore on an island in mid-stream as soon as we sighted broken
water. It was lucky we did so, as there was a heavy overfall impossible
to run, and we were obliged to portage the whole length of the island
and then shoot the tail of the rapid. Here we put ashore to patch the
canoe, which was leaking badly, and pulled out big trout as quickly as
we could throw in the spoon-bait; we found this could be done at the
foot of all the rapids, so one need not take much thought about
provisions in this part of the stream. After another small rapid, which
was run with a full load, the river, heading straight to the north,
passes through a small lake and emerges as a broad canal-like waterway
with very slight current, flowing through the roughest part of the
ironstone country that we had yet seen; the banks were steep too, and we
could put the canoe alongside a natural wharf in any spot for a
distance of five or six miles. In passing down these reaches we saw and
killed musk-ox, but the caribou seemed to shirk the labour of crossing
the confused masses of rocks, and none of these animals were seen till
we reached a less rugged district. Again the channel widened out into a
lake, two miles in length, with an ugly rapid at the north end; this we
negotiated with the precaution of leaving guns and ammunition ashore,
and directly afterwards Saltatha caused some excitement by saying he had
caught a glimpse of a man walking on a neighbouring ridge; we put
ashore, but could find no tracks, and came to the conclusion that it was
Saltatha's imagination. A long day's travel was made successfully, and
by ten o'clock we were clear of the ironstone and slipping quietly along
through a pleasant sandy country. We camped at the foot of a high
sand-butte covered with flowers and moss, and found a bunch of willows
on the bank of the river. There were indications that some one had
camped on the same spot many years ago; small sticks had been chopped
with an axe, and bones of caribou were lying in heaps on the ground. The
Yellow Knives at once said it was an old Esquimaux camp, and it was
evident that they had little inclination to go any farther down stream;
more probably the chopping was done by a band of Dog-Ribs, whose
hunting-grounds lie to the west, or possibly by the members of
Stewart's and Anderson's expeditions. On mounting the butte we saw that
the country northward presented a much more fertile appearance than
anything we had seen on the south side of the watershed. There was a
luxurious growth of grass over the sandy ridges, and during the two
months of summer one could imagine oneself back on the prairies of
Alberta; the willows here too grew to a better size, and, as far as we
descended the river, we had little trouble about fuel; in the winter, of
course, the willows would be all drifted over with snow, and it would
then be no easy matter to make a fire. This stream heads in the woodless
country; consequently there is no drift-timber, and not a single
pine-tree is to be seen along its course.
We had a pleasant camp enough that night, but rebellion was rife and
burst into flame on the following morning when we ordered the men to
take their places in the canoes. This is the hopeless part of having to
rely on natives for travelling in the Barren Ground; they have no
courage outside their own country. If we had had a good crew of
half-breeds from Red River or the upper country of British Columbia we
might even now, notwithstanding the lateness of the season, have pushed
far out towards the northern sea-coast, and possibly have made the
acquaintance of some of the scattered bands of Esquimaux who live there
in happy ignorance of any more comfortable form of life. But we were
practically in the hands of the Yellow Knives, for although I would
myself have taken the risk of steering, none of the men who were willing
to go knew how to stitch up a broken canoe, and it would have been
madness to push on without this knowledge. Moise, our half-breed
interpreter and steersman, who was an engaged servant of the Hudson's
Bay Company and bound by his contract to obey Mackinlay's orders in
everything, showed the Indian side of his nature by joining the
mutineers and refusing to take his position in the stern of the canoe.
For two hours we argued the matter on the bank of the river, and at one
time I thought we should certainly have come to blows. Marlo and
Carquoss were the ringleaders, but Saltatha was inclined to stand by us,
although afraid of giving offence to the other Indians. The result of
the dispute was that the worst two deserted, taking with them the little
canoe, while Noel and Saltatha, tempted by many promises of great reward
when we reached the fort, agreed to come with us, and Moise sulkily went
back to his duty. After we had thus got rid of the element of discord
things went on better; but the loss of the little canoe, besides doing
away with our chance of crossing overland to Bathurst Inlet, increased
the risk of losing all our possessions by one disaster. A pretty
poetical thing is a birch-bark canoe, as it leaps down a sparkling river
among its native birch woods, but too frail a craft for a long journey
in the rockbound country beyond the line where timber grows. No chance
here to strip the bark from a birch-tree and put a new side in a canoe
that has struck a rock in the foaming rapid, or if needs be to build a
new canoe altogether; three square feet of birch-bark, a little gum, and
a bundle of fibre were our only resources for effecting repairs.
The day's journey began with a rapid, below which was a reach of quiet
water gradually broadening out into a lake some eight miles in length;
its surface was covered with ice at the north end, but we found an open
channel close ashore on the west side and effected a passage through by
skirting the bays. Several bands of musk-ox were seen, and there was
always too much anxiety among the men to put ashore and shoot, or to do
anything except push steadily on; just as we were leaving the lake a
magnificent bull appeared on the top of a high ridge, and, standing on a
flat rock within one hundred yards of us, leisurely surveyed the first
human beings who had encroached upon his sanctuary for so many years.
Below the lake the river makes a sharp bend eastward, and for three
miles is nothing but a succession of rapids. Moise when once at work was
a splendid steersman, and he certainly handled the canoe with great
skill through this difficult piece of navigation; we passed the mouths
of two big streams coming in from the west, and at camping-time shot
into a quiet sandy lake and put ashore for the night. A musk-ox that I
killed from the door of the lodge, and the unlimited number of trout
that we could catch in the river, enabled us to spend a peaceful Sunday
without hunting. We explored towards the east, and came once more upon
the iron country, which seems to run with a sharply defined edge in a
north-easterly direction. There were few lakes out of the course of the
river, but long stretches of flat grassy muskegs extended as far as the
eye could see to the west. Four-footed game was plentiful, especially
musk-ox; the caribou that we saw were generally solitary bucks, but it
was now nearly time for the does to be coming back from the sea-coast;
of the smaller animals we often came across a skulking wolf, a
wolverine, an Arctic fox, or a hare, while the holes in the sand-hills
were the abode of numerous _siffleurs_ and ermines. A ferocious little
mouse, brown in summer, but turning white as the winter comes on, is
very common all over the Barren Ground; if disturbed from a tuft of
grass it will turn on a man and dance with impotent rage at his feet;
these mice naturally fall an easy prey to the hawks and owls, which make
a good living here during the summer months. Beyond these predatory
birds little feathered life was visible in this part of the country; a
few gulls, terns, and skuas flitted along the reaches of the river, and
occasionally a loon or a long-tailed duck could be seen in the lakes.
The Canada goose and grey wavy were breeding in the marshes, but not in
great quantities; the main body of geese go right out to the coast to
lay their eggs, and do not start for the South till the end of August.
In the early morning we made a short portage over a small cascade
immediately below the camp, and found that the river still held its
northerly course through a chain of small lakes connected by short
stretches of bad water. We made one more portage at mid-day and ran
several rather nasty rapids. After dinner we were obliged to portage
fully a mile to avoid an impassable reach, and then took more risk than
we were justified in doing with our only canoe by running a couple of
miles of broken water, full of boulders and with such a heavy sea that
we shipped a good deal of water; luckily we did not touch anything, and
dropped safely into a long narrow lake, on the east side of which camp
was made for the night. This was the most dangerous day that we made; as
although we always put ashore to inspect the rapids in case we might
discover a waterfall below, we became emboldened by success and ran in
safety through some places that we should not have attempted. Back's map
of the river would have been a great help to us, but neither this nor an
account of the previous journeys that had been made down the stream was
procurable at the fort.
The next day a curious blue haze hung over everything, closely
resembling the smoke of a forest fire at a distance from the scene of
conflagration. The lake that we had camped on proved to be about six
miles in length, with the usual rapid at its north end connecting it
with another lake, the size of which we could not at first determine
owing to the murky state of the air; nor could we at once find its
outlet, but by keeping in a north-easterly direction soon felt the
influence of a current, and found the volume of water much increased by
the junction of a tributary, which we afterwards discovered came in from
the north-west. On the east side of the stream, just as it left the
lake, we noticed a circle of flat stones standing on end, evidently put
up by human hands, and on landing discovered unmistakable signs of a
band of Esquimaux having been encamped there not very long before. Seven
small oval-shaped enclosures, surrounded by rough turf-heaps six inches
in height, had been the dwelling-places, but we could not determine
whether these low walls were the foundations of snow-houses or deer-skin
lodges; there were several blackened fireplaces outside, but the fires
must have been very small judging from the charred stumps of tiny green
willow twigs, and we saw no wood within several miles of the encampment.
The stones propped on end had been used probably for drying meat, and
for tying up the dogs to keep them from stealing. Bones and horns of
musk-ox and caribou were lying about in every direction, and their
numbers showed that this must be a favourite camping-place of the
Esquimaux; some of the musk-ox horns had been cut into rough spoons, and
several were found in a half-finished condition. A flat stone kettle was
picked up with the grease still sticking to it, and a small piece of
copper let into the back, possibly an arrangement for a handle, showed
that these people are able to work this metal; there were also a few
bone arrow-heads scattered about in the camp. If any further proof were
necessary to determine what tribe of people had camped here, it was
forthcoming in the form of several pieces of undressed sealskin with the
hair on, and these seemed to be of greater interest to our crew than any
of the other discoveries; arrow-heads, spoons, and kettle were dropped
in the contemplation of the skin of an animal they had never seen, and
they instantly demanded a description of the seal. After we had told
them all we knew upon the subject, we asked their opinion as to the
length of time that the Esquimaux had remained here, and when they had
left. Saltatha, reading the signs that a white man might miss, came to
the conclusion that they had come here in the autumn, as was proved by
the hard horns of male caribou lying about, that they had stayed here
through the winter, and left late in the spring with dogs on the last
snow, about six weeks before our arrival. He thought too that they made
a practice of coming here regularly, in the same manner that the Yellow
Knives come to the head-waters of the river, as the bones appeared to
him to have belonged to animals killed at widely differing dates. We
found hiding-places among the rocks close to the edge of the river,
which had evidently been used for concealing men engaged in spearing the
swimming caribou. The only weak point in Saltatha's theory seemed to be
the absence of any carcasses of freshly killed caribou; but it is
possible that the Esquimaux may have left before the females came out so
far, and the animals would have been later than usual in arriving here
owing to the backward nature of the spring.
When we had thoroughly inspected everything we left again down stream,
with a swift current and good water without rapids for eight miles,
where we found another lake running more to the eastward than the
general course of the river; on the west side of this lake we were
obliged to camp, as a strong head-wind raised too much sea to travel
against, and rain was falling in torrents. We explored the shore of the
lake in hopes of finding further traces of the Esquimaux, but made no
discoveries of any kind. No musk-ox were seen this day, but there were
enough caribou to provide food for the party.
With better weather we made an early start in the morning, the river on
leaving the lake bending a little more to the eastward, with a swift
current for several miles, and two rapids which we ran in safety. A
short distance below the second rapid the current slackens and the
stream gets rapidly broader, till, with a sudden sweep to the
south-east, the whole length of Beechey Lake comes open; a long narrow
sheet of water, twenty-five miles in length, and nowhere more than two
in breadth, lying east and west, and forming a well-defined elbow in the
course of the Great Fish River. With a light fair wind, and a blanket
set for a sail, we ran down the lake and pitched our lodge on the north
shore. Two days were spent in exploration, but again we failed entirely
to find any signs of the Esquimaux. Towards the east end of the lake the
iron formation shows up once more, and the country is rough to travel
through. There was a slight difficulty about provisions at this time as
game was scarce, and, though we fully expected to catch fish in the lake
and put out our net both nights, not a single fish was taken; just at
the critical time, however, a few female caribou with their young turned
up on their way back to the South, and we were relieved of all anxiety.
As we had promised our crew that we would not descend the river beyond
Beechey Lake, and it was already the end of July, orders were
reluctantly given on the third day to start up stream with the intention
of doing a little exploration to the northward of the old Esquimaux
camp, to see if there was any feasible route from there to Bathurst
Inlet, as there were no signs of these people having camped in any other
place along the river. It seemed a pity to abandon the voyage just at
the interesting time, after we had got over all the difficulties of the
upper part of the river and had now only a broad stream to follow, with
a great deal of easy lake-travel, to reach the Arctic Ocean, and the
scene of the final sufferings of the members of Sir John Franklin's last
expedition. On the other hand, we had no object in going down to the
sea, and there is little pleasure to be got out of a journey of this
kind with an unwilling and untrustworthy crew; our canoe, too, which was
already leaking badly, would have been of very little service for sea
work.
As far as Beechey Lake the south side of the Great Fish River is free
from any large tributary streams, so that, if our canoe had been smashed
up in a rapid, and we had been able to save guns and ammunition, it
would have been easy enough to follow the river on foot; but on the
north side there are several large streams to be forded, and a long
detour might be necessary to find a spot shallow enough for this
purpose.
There was much more enthusiasm displayed by the Indian portion of the
crew on the up-stream journey, and no encouragement was needful to get a
good day's work done. In the river stretches the tracking line was used,
and three men at the shore end of it kept the canoe travelling at a
lively pace except in the very strong water; in mounting the second
rapid a mistake on the part of Noel, our bowsman, caused a heavy
collision with a rock, and several hours were spent in putting in a
patch of birch-bark. On the second night we pitched our lodge on the
sandy lake within sight of the Esquimaux camp, and found a considerable
stream coming in from a north-westerly direction. I cannot find any
mention of this stream in the accounts of the two former journeys down
the river, nor is it marked on the maps; it was probably unnoticed on
both occasions, as it comes in at the west end of the lake, out of the
course of a canoe passing up or down the main river.
Mackinlay, Murdo, and myself started on foot the following morning, to
explore this stream for a couple of days, taking David with us in case
we came across any of his countrymen. The malcontents were left in
charge of the camp, with orders to kill caribou if any passed, and
partially dry the meat to save the waste of time caused by having to
hunt for our living as we travelled; they were also to thoroughly gum
the canoe, to stop as much as possible the leaking which was getting
serious.
We struck out along the bank of the stream, carrying nothing but a gun
and a blanket apiece, and at dinner-time were lucky enough to find a
flock of moulting Canada geese, unable to fly; four were shot, and two
eaten at once, while the other two were stowed away among the rocks for
use later on. We had a long day's walk through a pleasant grassy
country, and towards evening crossed an unusually high range of hills
through which the river cañons. Finding a few willows here, we left our
blankets, and walked on along the bank for an hour or two, finally
climbing a solitary sand-butte at sundown for a last survey of the
country before turning our faces to the south.
Far away towards the north-west we could trace the windings of the
stream to a ridge of blue hills, which formed the horizon under the
setting sun. How these blue ridges in the distance tempt one to push on
and see what lies on the far side! And the experience that nine times
out of ten you would have done better to stay where you were is never
sufficient to overcome this feeling; to this day I can seldom resist it,
although game may be plentiful at the door of my lodge and everything
that one desires in a wild country is close at hand. Below us lay a
broad valley, so green and fertile in appearance that we could hardly
realise that for nine months in the year it lay frost-bound and
snow-covered under the rigour of an Arctic climate. In the middle of
this valley, close to the bank of the stream, was a black object that we
had long ago learnt to recognise at a glance, an old bull musk-ox
feeding in a patch of willow-scrub; he was sacrificed for our night's
rations, and, loaded with meat and marrow-bones, we returned to the
cañon where we had left our blankets. There was a distinct twilight, and
late in the night David awoke me to draw my attention to the first star
that we had seen for many weeks. "See," he said, "a star already; it is
past middle summer, and we have not yet seen the sun all night." It was
the first summer he had ever spent without seeing the midnight sun, as,
since he had been left at the Peel River Fort by a band of Esquimaux who
come there annually to trade, he had passed his life within the Arctic
circle.
The only signs that we saw of people having travelled along this valley
were occasional cache-marks made by piling up a heap of small stones in
a conspicuous position, to denote the carcass of an animal hidden in the
rocks close by; but it seems such an easy route and leads so nearly in
the direction of Bathurst Inlet, the nearest point on the sea-coast,
that it is probably used regularly by wandering bands of Esquimaux on
their way to and from their inland hunting-ground.
This was the end of our voyage of discovery, though I should have liked
to have pushed on another day or two; but we wanted a small canoe to be
certain of reaching the coast, which must have been within sixty miles
of us, as there are sure to be many lakes to cross _en route_, and
making long detours on foot would be an endless task. The fine weather
also had broken, and heavy showers of rain came driving in front of the
north wind, while the rest of our crew that had remained with the canoe
were not too trustworthy, and, with the exception of Saltatha, in whom
both Mackinlay and myself had great confidence, were quite capable of
leaving us to find our way out of the country on foot. We had to content
ourselves with the hope that in a future summer, with an earlier season
and a better crew, we might find an opportunity of exploring thoroughly
this promising valley in the Barren Ground. But now I must turn my
attention to my long journey of seventeen hundred miles, mostly
up-stream, to cross the Rocky Mountains by the head-waters of the Peace
River before the winter set in; and even if I could manage this there
were still many hundred miles of mountain and forest to be crossed
before I saw the shores of the Pacific and the abodes of civilization.
When we reached the lodge we found that the Indians had made a stupid
slaughter of caribou, and, not contented with taking as much meat as we
could carry, had been recklessly killing the females and young that were
now passing in great numbers. The love of killing seems deeply rooted in
the nature of most men, but the Yellow Knives have it more fully
developed than other people. This indiscriminate slaughter is especially
culpable in a land where ammunition is scarce, and not to be replaced
when wasted by needless firing.
The next morning we picked out of our trading-stock a few presents to be
left in the Esquimaux camp, as a sign that there were people in the
interior willing to be on friendly terms with the people of the coast.
Knives, axes, beads, and files, a couple of hand-mirrors, a few strips
of red cloth, and a flannel shirt or two were stuffed into a copper
kettle, which would be itself the biggest prize of all. On lifting the
lid, the first object to meet the eye of the wondering Esquimaux would
be the photograph of the Protestant missionary at Fort Resolution, which
David had been keeping among his small stock of treasures; it was a
photograph of a Church of England clergyman, in clerical costume, and
should certainly give the Esquimaux a favourable idea of the style of
man who had visited their camping-place. We also put in a note asking
anyone who might read it to let us know in what manner it had come to
hand, as it is uncertain whether these scattered bands of Esquimaux ever
visit the Hudson's Bay Company's summer trading-post on Marble Island,
which lies a great distance away at the mouth of Chesterfield Inlet, or
whether they only know of the white men by hearsay from other tribes
that trade annually with the Company. The kettle was carefully stowed in
one of the pits made for watching the swimming caribou, and a
canoe-pole, bearing a gaudy cotton handkerchief for a flag, planted
alongside to attract attention. Everybody tried their handiwork at
sketching our story with burnt sticks on the conspicuous flat rocks
close to the river: there was a picture of a canoe, with seven upright
black lines supposed to represent seven men; another of a Yellow Knife
and an Esquimau (though the artist could not say which was which)
shaking hands with the greatest affection; while David was certainly
entitled to the first prize for a bloodthirsty sketch of a misshapen
musk-ox, with a thin black line, again supposed to be a man, transfixed
on the point of his horn. When we thought we had represented everything
to perfection, we turned our backs on the land of the Esquimaux and
plodded away up stream, tracking and portaging in the river-stretches,
and paddling through the lakes which are always a great help in mounting
a stream.
We now came in for a spell of really bad weather, which made the uphill
work very laborious. A heavy unceasing downpour of rain, and sometimes
sleet, continued day after day, accompanied by strong winds. The men all
worked well and without much grumbling, although we were never dry and
in many places the tracking had to be done waist-deep in water; at night
we slept in our wet clothes, on the wet ground, rolled up in our sopping
blankets. This is the killing weather, and one needs perfect health to
resist its effects; the dry cold of a northern winter is child's play in
comparison. Saltatha, who had hurt himself by a nasty fall while
carrying a heavy load over a portage, broke down completely at this
time, and was unable to work during the rest of the trip. We could do
nothing for him, as there was no medicine of any kind in the outfit,
and he had to take his chance with the rest. I think he came very near
dying while we were running down Lockhart's River; he lost all strength
and was spitting blood freely for a fortnight, but ultimately recovered
in a miraculous manner. We worked long days tracking up-stream, but were
continually delayed by having to patch up the canoe every time she
touched a rock; it was just as well we did not go down to the mouth of
the river, for she would certainly not have stood another three weeks'
work of this kind. Another trouble was the scarcity of moccasins, which
were completely worn out by a single day's walk on the sharp rocks along
the river's bank.
In eight days we reached Musk-ox Lake, and, finding the wind too strong
to paddle against, we put ashore on the east side and took advantage of
a little sunshine to thoroughly dry all our belongings. From this camp
we saw the last musk-ox, and, crossing the bay with a canoe, went in
pursuit as our meat supply was short. Some of the guns were posted, and
others tried to drive the animals, but we made a mess of the hunt and
the whole band escaped; my last remembrance of the animals that I had
started out a year before on purpose to kill, being a stern view of a
grand old bull disappearing at a gallop over a ridge, and a puff of dust
just behind him, marking the spot where a badly aimed rifle-bullet had
struck the ground. A caribou, however, supplied us with meat, but we
had some trouble in picking him up, as he was killed in the water and it
was no easy matter to tow his carcass ashore against the gale of wind
that was raging. Mackinlay and myself for once got ahead of the
wolverines on this occasion. We saw three coming our way before they saw
us, and, lying behind a rock, bowled them all over; a right and left at
wolverines is seldom brought about in a lifetime, but it is very
satisfactory when one thinks of the stolen _caches_ and consequent hard
times that these wily brutes are responsible for.
From the south end of the lake I walked ahead with Mackinlay, starting
early in the morning, and at mid-day sighted three lodges on the Aylmer
Lake divide. We fired a signal-shot which brought everybody out, and we
were soon surrounded by Capot Blanc's brigade, and deluged with
questions as to what had happened and why we had come back alone; for
surely something evil had taken place in the country that always slopes
downhill. With our small command of the Yellow Knife language, and
plenty of signs, we made them understand that the canoe was by this time
at the first lake, and the water was so low in the river that it would
be necessary to portage the whole distance. All the available men and
women went to help our crew to carry the loads, and by sundown our lodge
was once more planted by the water that finds its way to the Great
Slave Lake and runs a course of a thousand miles before falling into
the Arctic Sea.
It took half a day to settle accounts with the Indians who had been
working for us on our way up to Musk-ox Lake, while the women were busy
gumming the canoe and getting her in order for the run down Lockhart's
River. A good proportion of the wages due were paid out of the remainder
of our trading-stock that had been intended for the Esquimaux if we had
met them. The box that contained this small supply of goods had been an
object of strife the whole time. The Indians had the strongest objection
to any of the products of the Grand Pays passing through their country
being given to strangers, and we had been careful not to let them see
the gaudy contents of the box, or we should have been troubled with the
constant begging that the Yellow Knives think will eventually gain them
the object they desire. Imagination had run high as to the contents of
the fairy casket, and there was a great rush when it was announced that
any of the men to whom wages were due might take what they fancied. They
had seen pressed bales of blankets landed at the fort on the arrival of
the yearly outfit from Winnipeg, and had been surprised at the number of
blankets that could be squeezed into a small space; there was an idea
prevalent that our box had been packed on the same principle, and might
contain an abundant supply of all the good things that only the white
men know how to make. Some disappointment was shown when it turned out
that we had only been speaking the truth in answering their petitions by
telling them we had such a small stock that nothing could be spared. The
trade went off to the satisfaction of both sides; the Indians obtained
the trinkets so dear to their vanity, and we lightened our load for the
numerous portages that lay between us and the Great Slave Lake. There
was some question as to what it was best to do with Saltatha; whether to
leave him here with his friends, or to let him take his chance of the
canoe journey to the fort, where medicine could possibly be obtained; at
his own request we decided on the latter course, and during the first
few days his health seemed to improve.
The route that we were now to take was the same that Back and Anderson
had both chosen, following the Lockhart's River down-stream through the
immense lakes that lie in its course, gradually bending to the
south-west, and avoiding the impassable obstructions in the lower part
of the river by portaging through a chain of lakes, the last of which is
only three miles distant from the north-east end of the Great Slave
Lake. The boat was to meet us on August 1st, and as it was already
several days past that date we determined to travel our best, although
there was a chance of getting windbound in any of the big lakes.