We started at an early hour the following morning and reached the Hudson’s Bay Company’s post to breakfast, and were received very kindly by Mr. MacFarlane, the gentleman in charge. The other establishment, situated on the opposite side of the river, was under the direction of Mr. Dugald Cameron, one of the partners of the North-West Company on whom Mr. Back and I called soon after our arrival and were honoured with a salute of musketry.
These establishments are small but said to be well situated for procuring furs; as the numerous creeks in their vicinity are much resorted to by the beaver, otter and musquash. The residents usually obtain a superabundant supply of provision. This season however they barely had sufficient for their own support, owing to the epidemic which has incapacitated the Indians for hunting. The Green Lake lies nearly north and south, is eighteen miles in length and does not exceed one mile and a half of breadth in any part. The water is deep and it is in consequence one of the last lakes in the country that is frozen. Excellent tittameg and trout are caught in it from March to December but after that time most of the fish remove to some larger lake.
We remained two days awaiting the return of some men who had been sent to the Indian lodges for meat and who were to go on with us. Mr. Back and I did not need this rest, having completely surmounted the pain occasioned by the snowshoes. We dined twice with Mr. Cameron and received from him many useful suggestions respecting our future operations. This gentleman, having informed us that provisions would probably be very scarce next spring in the Athabasca department in consequence of the sickness of the Indians during the hunting season, undertook at my request to cause a supply of pemmican to be conveyed from the Saskatchewan to Isle à la Crosse for our use during the winter, and I wrote to apprise Dr. Richardson and Mr. Hood that they would find it at the latter post when they passed, and also to desire them to bring as much as the canoes would stow from Cumberland.
The atmosphere was clear and cold during our stay; observations were obtained at the Hudson’s Bay Fort, latitude 54° 16′ 10″ North, longitude 107° 29′ 52″ West, variation 22° 6′ 35″ East.
February 20.
Having been equipped with carioles, sledges and provisions from the two posts, we this day recommenced our journey and were much amused by the novelty of the salute given at our departure, the guns being principally fired by the women in the absence of the men. Our course was directed to the end of the lake and for a short distance along a small river; we then crossed the woods to the Beaver River which we found to be narrow and very serpentine, having moderately high banks. We encamped about one mile and a half farther up among poplars. The next day we proceeded along the river; it was winding and about two hundred yards broad. We passed the mouths of two rivers whose waters it receives; the latter one we were informed is a channel by which the Indians go to the Lesser Slave Lake. The banks of the river became higher as we advanced and were adorned with pines, poplars and willows.
Though the weather was very cold we travelled more comfortably than at any preceding time since our departure from Cumberland as we had light carioles which enabled us to ride nearly the whole day warmly covered up with a buffalo robe. We were joined by Mr. McLeod of the North-West Company who had kindly brought some things from Green Lake which our sledges could not carry. Pursuing our route along the river we reached at an early hour the upper extremity of the Grand Rapid where the ice was so rough that the carioles and sledges had to be conveyed across a point of land. Soon after noon we left the river, inclining North-East, and directed our course North-West until we reached Long Lake and encamped at its northern extremity, having come twenty-three miles. This lake is about fourteen miles long and from three-quarters to one mile and a half broad, its shores and islands low but well wooded. There were frequent snow-showers during the day.
ISLE A LA CROSSE.
February 23.
The night was very stormy but the wind became more moderate in the morning. We passed today through several nameless lakes and swamps before we came to Train Lake which received its name from being the place where the traders procured the birch to make their sledges or traineaux; but this wood has been all used and there only remain pines and a few poplars. We met some sledges laden with fish, kindly sent to meet us by Mr. Clark of the Hudson’s Bay Company on hearing of our approach. Towards the evening the weather became much more unpleasant and we were exposed to a piercingly cold wind and much snowdrift in traversing the Isle à la Crosse Lake; we were therefore highly pleased at reaching the Hudson’s Bay House by six P.M. We were received in the most friendly manner by Mr. Clark and honoured by volleys of musketry. Similar marks of attention were shown to us on the following day by Mr. Bethune, the partner in charge of the North-West Company’s fort. I found here the letters which I had addressed from Cumberland in November last to the partners of the North-West Company in the Athabasca, which circumstance convinced me of the necessity of our present journey.