d. Norton's
choice fell upon Hearne.

The young man was instructed to make his {40} way to the Athabaska
country and thence to find if he could the river of the north whence
the copper came, and to trace the river to the sea. He was to note the
position of any mines, to prepare the way for trade with the Indians,
and to find out from travel or enquiry whether there was a water
passage through the continent. Two white men (a sailor and a landsman)
were sent in Hearne's service. He had as guides an Indian chief,
Chawchinahaw, with a small band of his followers. On November 6, 1769,
the little party set out, honoured by a salute of seven guns from the
huge fortress of Fort Prince of Wales, the massive ruins of which still
stand as one of the strangest monuments of the continent.

The country which the explorer was to traverse in this and his
succeeding journeys may be ranked among the most inhospitable regions
of the earth. The northern limit of the great American forest runs
roughly in a line north-westward from Churchill to the mouth of the
Mackenzie river. East and north of this line is the country of the
barren grounds, for the most part a desolate waste of rock. It is
broken by precipitous watercourses and wide lakes, and has no
vegetation except the mosses and grasses which support great wandering
{41} herds of caribou. A few spruce trees and hardy shrubs struggle
northward from the limits of the great woods. Even these die out in
the bitter climate, and then the explorer sees about him nothing but
the wide waste of barren rock and running water or in winter the
endless mantle of the northern snow.

It is not strange that Hearne's first attempt met with complete
failure. His Indian companions had, indeed, no intention of guiding
him to the Athabaska country. They deliberately kept to the north of
the woods, along the edge of the barren grounds, where Hearne and his
companions were exposed to the intense cold which set in a few days
after their departure. When they camped at night only a few poor
shrubs could be gathered to make a fire, and the travellers were
compelled to scoop out holes in the snow to shelter their freezing
bodies against the bitter blast. The Indians, determined to prevent
the white men from reaching their goal, provided very little game.
Hearne and his two servants were reduced to a ration of half a
partridge a day for each man. Each day the Indian chief descanted at
length upon