From the strangers who last joined us we received some ready-dressed moose-skins for tenting and shoe-leather; also some other skins for clothing, for all of which the Chief at the Factory was to pay on our arrival.
I cannot sufficiently lament the loss of my quadrant, as the want of it must render the course of my journey from Point Lake, where it was broken, very uncertain; and my watch stopping while I was at the Athapuscow Lake, has contributed greatly to the misfortune, as I am now deprived of every means of estimating the distances which we walked with any degree of accuracy, particularly in thick weather, when the Sun could not be seen.
16th.
1772. March.
The Indians were employed at all convenient times in procuring birch-rind and making wood-work ready for building canoes; also in preparing small staffs of birch-wood, to take with them on the barren ground, to serve as tent-poles all the Summer; and which, as hath been already observed, they convert into snow-shoe frames when the Winter sets in. Here it may be proper to observe, that none of those incidental avocations interfere with, or retard the Indians in their journey; for they always take the advantage of every {281} opportunity which offers, as they pass along, and when they see a tree fit for their purpose, cut it down, and either strip off the bark, if that be what they want, or split the trunk in pieces; and after hewing it roughly with their hatchet, carry it to the tent, where in the evenings, or in the morning before they set out, they reduce it with their knives to the shape and size which is required.
19th.
Provisions being plentiful, and the weather fine, we advanced a little each day; and on the nineteenth took up our lodgings by the side of Wholdyeah-chuck'd Whoie, or Large Pike Lake. In our way we crossed another small lake, where we caught some trout by angling, and killed a few deer and one moose.
20th.
On the twentieth we crossed Large Pike Lake, which at that part was not more than seven miles wide; but from North North West to the South South East is much longer. The next day we arrived at Bedodid Lake,[111] which in general is not more than three miles wide, and in several places much less; but it is upward of forty miles long, which gives it the appearance of a river. It is said by the Indians to be shut up on all sides, and entirely surrounded with high land, which produces vast quantity of fir trees, but none of them grow to a great height in those parts: their branches, however, spread wider than those of firs of three times their height and thickness do in Europe; so that they resemble an apple-tree in shape, {282} more than any species of the pine. They seem rich in tar, as the wood of them will burn like a candle, and emit as strong a smell, and as much black smoke, as the staves of an old tar-barrel; for which reason no Indians chuse to burn it in their tents, or even out of doors, for the purpose of cooking their victuals.
1772. March.