{161} When the Indians had plundered the seven tents of all the copper utensils, which seemed the only thing worth {162} their notice, they threw all the tents and tent-poles into the river, destroyed a vast quantity of dried salmon, musk-oxen flesh, and other provisions; broke all the stone kettles; and, in fact, did all the mischief they possibly could to distress the poor creatures they could not murder, and who were standing on the shoal before mentioned, obliged to be woeful spectators of their great, or perhaps irreparable loss.
After the Indians had completed this piece of wantonness we sat down, and made a good meal of fresh salmon, which were as numerous at the place where we now rested, as they were on the West side of the river. When we had finished our meal, which was the first we had enjoyed for many hours, the Indians told me that they were again ready to assist me in making an end of my survey. It was then about five o'clock in the morning of the seventeenth, the sea being in sight from the North West by West to the North East, about eight miles distant. I therefore set instantly about commencing my survey, and pursued it to the mouth of the river, which I found all the way so full of shoals and falls that it was not navigable even for a boat, and that it emptied itself into the sea over a ridge or bar. {163} The tide was then out; but I judged from the marks which I saw on the edge of the ice, that it flowed about twelve or fourteen feet, which will only reach a little way within the river's mouth. The tide being out, the water in the river was perfectly fresh; but I am certain of its being the sea, or some branch of it, by the quantity of whalebone and seal-skins which the Esquimaux had at their tents, and also by the number of seals[72] which I saw on the ice. At the mouth of the river, the sea is full of islands and shoals, as far as I could see with the assistance of a good pocket telescope. The ice was not then broke up, but was melted away for about three quarters of a mile from the main shore, and to a little distance round the islands and shoals.
18th.
By the time I had completed this survey, it was about one in the morning of the eighteenth; but in those high latitudes, and at this season of the year, the Sun is always at a good height above the horizon, so that we had not only day light, but sunshine the whole night: a thick fog and drizzling rain then came on, and finding that neither the river nor sea were likely to be of any use, I did not think it worth while to wait for fair weather to determine the latitude exactly by an observation; but by the extraordinary care I took in observing the courses and distances when I walked from Congecathawhachaga, where I had two good observations, the latitude may be depended upon within twenty miles at the utmost. For the sake of form, {164} however, after having had some consultation with the Indians, I erected a mark, and took possession of the coast, on behalf of the Hudson's Bay Company.[73]
1771. July.
Having finished this business, we set out on our return, and walked about twelve miles to the South by East, when we stopped and took a little sleep, which was the first time that any of us had closed our eyes from the fifteenth instant, and it was now six o'clock in the morning of the eighteenth. Here the Indians killed a musk-ox, but the moss being very wet, we could not make a fire, so that we were obliged to eat the meat raw, which was intolerable, as it happened to be an old beast.
1771. July.
Before I proceed farther on my return, it may not be improper to give some account of the river, and the country adjacent; its productions, and the animals which constantly inhabit those dreary regions, as well as those that only migrate thither in Summer, in order to breed and rear their young, unmolested by man. That I may do this to better purpose, it will be necessary to go back to the place where I first came to the river, which was about forty miles from its mouth.
Beside the stunted pines already mentioned, there are some tufts of dwarf willows; plenty of Wishacumpuckey,[74] (as the English call it, and which they use as tea); some {165} jackasheypuck, which the natives use as tobacco; and a few cranberry and heathberry bushes; but not the least appearance of any fruit.