Journals, стр. 8
I now wrote to Messrs. Macleod and Mackenzie, and addressed my papers to the former, at Athabasca.
.—We left this place at three this morning, our canoe being deeply laden, as we had embarked some packages that had come in the canoes of M. Le Roux. We were saluted on our departure with some volleys of small 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 natives, 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 appearance 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 scattered trees, of a very stinted growth, from an insufficiency of soil to nourish them. But, notwithstanding their barren appearance, almost every part of them produces berries of various kinds, such as cranberries, juniper berries, raspberries, partridge berries, gooseberries, and the pathagomenan, 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-southeast 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 surprised 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 become 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 throughout the year, but that they had been driven away by the Knisteneaux, who continually made war upon them. If an establishment is to be made in this country, it must be in the neighbourhood of this place, on account of the wood and fishery.
At eleven we ventured to re-embark, as the wind had driven the greatest part of the ice past the island, though we still had to encounter some broken pieces of it, which threatened to damage our canoe. We steered southeast from point to point across five bays, twenty-one miles. We took soundings several times, and found from six to ten fathom water. I observed that the country gradually descended inland, and was still better covered with wood than in the higher parts.—Wherever we approached the land, we perceived deserted lodges. The hunters killed two swans and a beaver; and at length we landed at eight o’clock in the evening, when we unloaded and gummed our canoe.
.—We continued our route at five o’clock, steering southeast for ten miles across two deep bays; then south-southeast, with islands in sight to the eastward. We then traversed another bay in a course of three miles, then south one mile to a point which we named the Detour, and south-southwest four miles and an half, when there was an heavy swell of the lake. Here I took an observation, when we were in 61° 40′ north latitude. We then proceeded southwest four miles, and west-southwest among islands: on one of which our Indians killed two reindeer, but we lost three hours aft wind in going for them: this course was nine miles. About seven in the evening we were obliged to land for the night, as the wind became too strong from the southeast. We thought we could observe land in this direction when the wind was coming on from some distance. On the other side of the Detour, the land is low, and the shore is flat and dangerous, there being no safe place to land in bad weather, except in the islands which we had just passed. There seemed to be plenty of moose and reindeer in this country, as we saw their tracks wherever we landed. There are also great numbers of white partridges, which were at this season of a grey colour, like that of the moorfowl. There was some floating ice in the lake, and the Indians killed a couple of swans.
.—At three this morning we were in the canoe, after having passed a very restless night from the persecution of the mosquitoes The weather was fine and calm, and our course west-southwest nine miles, when we came to the foot