On the 18th Mr. Back and Mr. Wentzel set out for Fort Providence accompanied by Beauparlant, Belanger, and two Indians, Akaiyazza and Tholezzeh, with their wives, the Little Forehead and the Smiling Marten. Mr. Back had volunteered to go and make the necessary arrangements for transporting the stores we expected from Cumberland House and to endeavour to obtain some additional supplies from the establishments at Slave Lake. If any accident should have prevented the arrival of our stores and the establishments at Moose-Deer Island should be unable to supply the deficiency he was, if he found himself equal to the task, to proceed to Chipewyan. Ammunition was essential to our existence and a considerable supply of tobacco was also requisite, not only for the comfort of the Canadians, who use it largely and had stipulated for it in their engagements, but also as a means of preserving the friendship of the Indians. Blankets, cloth, and iron-work were scarcely less indispensable to equip our men for the advance next season.
Mr. Wentzel accompanied Mr. Back to assist him in obtaining from the traders, on the score of old friendship, that which they might be inclined to deny to our necessities. I forwarded by them letters to the Colonial Office and Admiralty detailing the proceedings of the Expedition up to this period.
On the 22nd we were surprised by a visit from a dog; the poor animal was in low condition and much fatigued. Our Indians discovered by marks on his ears that he belonged to the Dog-Ribs. This tribe, unlike the Chipewyans and Copper Indians, had preserved that useful associate of man although, from their frequent intercourse with the latter people, they were not ignorant of the prediction alluded to in a former page. One of our interpreters was immediately despatched with an Indian to endeavour to trace out the Dog-Ribs, whom he supposed might be concealed in the neighbourhood from their dread of the Copper Indians; although we had no doubt of their coming to us were they aware of our being here. The interpreter however returned without having discovered any traces of strange Indians, a circumstance which led us to conclude that the dog had strayed from his masters a considerable time before.
Towards the end of the month the men completed their house and took up their abode in it. It was thirty-four feet long and eighteen feet wide, was divided into two apartments and was placed at right angles to the officers’ dwelling and facing the storehouse, the three buildings forming three sides of a quadrangle.
On the 26th Akaitcho and his party arrived, the hunting in this neighbourhood being terminated for the season by the deer having retired southward to the shelter of the woods.
The arrival of this large party was a serious inconvenience to us from our being compelled to issue them daily rates of provision from the store. The want of ammunition prevented us from equipping and sending them to the woods to hunt and, although they are accustomed to subsist themselves for a considerable part of the year by fishing or snaring the deer, without having recourse to firearms, yet on the present occasion they felt little inclined to do so and gave scope to their natural love of ease as long as our storehouse seemed to be well stocked. Nevertheless as they were conscious of impairing our future resources they did not fail occasionally to remind us that it was not their fault, to express an ardent desire to go hunting, and to request a supply of ammunition although they knew that it was not in our power to give it.
The summer birds had by this time entirely deserted us, leaving for our winter companions the raven, cinereous crow, ptarmigan, and snow-bird. The last of the waterfowl that quitted us was a species of diver of the same size with the Colymbus arcticus, but differing from it in the arrangement of the white spots on its plumage, and in having a yellowish-white bill. This bird was occasionally caught in our fishing-nets.
The thermometer during the month of October at Fort Enterprise never rose above 37° or fell below 5°; the mean temperature for the month was 23°.
In the beginning of October a party had been sent to the westward to search for birch to make snowshoe frames, and the Indian women were afterwards employed in netting the shoes and preparing leather for winter clothing to the men. Robes of reindeer skins were also obtained from the Indians and issued to the men who were to travel as they were not only a great deal lighter than blankets but also much warmer and altogether better adapted for a winter in this climate. They are however unfit for summer use as the least moisture causes the skin to spoil and lose its hair. It requires the skins of seven deer to make one robe. The finest are made of the skins of young fawns.
The fishing having failed as the weather became more severe was given up on the 5th. It had procured us about one thousand two hundred white-fish, from two to three pounds each. There are two other species of Coregoni in Winter Lake, Back’s grayling and the round-fish; and a few trout, pike, methye, and red carp were also occasionally obtained from the nets. It may be worthy of notice here that the fish froze as they were taken out of the nets, in a short time became a solid mass of ice and, by a blow or two of the hatchet, were easily split open, when the intestines might be removed in one lump. If in this completely frozen state they were thawed before the fire they recovered their animation. This was particularly the case with the carp and we had occasion to observe it repeatedly as Dr. Richardson occupied himself with examining the structure of the different species of fish and was always in the winter under the necessity of thawing them before he could cut them. We have seen a carp recover so far as to leap about with much vigour after it had been frozen for thirty-six hours.