n a tin box, a letter
containing an outline of our proceedings, the latitude and longitude of
the principal places, and the course we intended to pursue towards Slave
Lake.

Embarking at eight A.M. we proceeded up the river which is full of sandy
shoals, but sufficiently deep for canoes in the channels. It is from
one hundred to two hundred yards wide, and is bounded by high and steep
banks of clay. We encamped at a cascade of eighteen or twenty feet high,
which is produced by a ridge of rock crossing the river, and the nets
were set. A mile below this cascade Hood's River is joined by a stream
half its own size, which I have called James' Branch. Bear and deer
tracks had been numerous on the banks of the river when we were here
before, but not a single recent one was to be seen at this time. Credit,
however, killed a small deer at some distance inland, which, with the
addition of berries, furnished a delightful repast this evening. The
weather was remarkably fine, and the temperature so mild, that the
musquitoes again made their appearance, but not in any great numbers.
Our distance made to-day was not more than six miles.

The next morning the net furnished us with ten white fish and trout.
Having made a further deposit of iron work for the Esquimaux we pursued
our voyage up the river, but the shoals and rapids in this part were so
frequent, that we walked along the banks the whole day, and the crews
laboured hard in carrying the canoes thus lightened over the shoals or
dragging them up the rapids, yet our journey in a direct line was only
about seven miles. In the evening we encamped at the lower end of a
narrow chasm through which the river flows for upwards of a mile. The
walls of this chasm are upwards of two hundred feet high, quite
perpendicular, and in some places only a few yards apart. The river
precipitates itself into it over a rock, forming two magnificent and
picturesque falls close to each other. The upper fall is about sixty
feet high, and the lower one at least one hundred; but perhaps
considerably more, for the narrowness of the chasm into which it fell
prevented us from seeing its bottom, and we could merely discern the top
of the spray far beneath our feet. The lower fall is divided into two,
by an insulated column of rock which rises about forty feet above it.
The whole descent of the river at this place probably exceeds two
hundred and fifty feet. The rock is very fine felspathose
sand-stone{35}