feet nine inches forward where the
bowman sat, and two feet four inches behind where the steersman was
placed; and its depth was one foot eleven and a quarter inches. There
were seventy-three hoops of thin cedar, and a layer of slender laths of
the same wood within the frame. These feeble vessels of bark will carry
twenty-five pieces of goods, each weighing ninety pounds, exclusive of
the necessary provision and baggage for the crew of five or six men,
amounting in the whole to about three thousand three hundred pounds'
weight. This great lading they annually carry between the depots and the
posts, in the interior; and it rarely happens that any accidents occur,
if they be managed by experienced bowmen and steersmen, on whose skill
the safety of the canoe entirely depends in the rapids and difficult
places. When a total portage is made, these two men carry the canoe, and
they often run with it, though its weight is estimated at about three
hundred pounds, exclusive of the poles and oars, which are occasionally
left in where the distance is short.

On the 5th, we made an excursion for the purpose of trying our canoe. A
heavy gale came on in the evening, which caused a great swell in the
lake, and in crossing the waves we had the satisfaction to find that our
birchen vessel proved an excellent sea-boat.

_July 7_.--This morning some men, and their families, who had been sent
off to search for Indians with whom they intended to pass the summer,
returned to the fort in consequence of a serious accident having
befallen their canoe in the Red Deer River; when they were in the act of
hauling up a strong rapid, the line broke, the canoe was overturned, and
two of the party narrowly escaped drowning; fortunately the women and
children happened to be on shore, or, in all probability, they would
have perished in the confusion of the scene. Nearly all their stores,
their guns and fishing nets, were lost, and they could not procure any
other food for the last four days than some unripe berries.

Some gentlemen arrived in the evening with a party of Chipewyan Indians,
from Hay River, a post between the Peace River, and the Great Slave
Lake. These men gave distressing accounts of sickness among their
relatives, and the Indians in general along the Peace River, and they
said many of them have died. The disease was described as dysentery. On
the 10th and 11th we had very sultry weather, and were dreadfully
tormented by musquitoes. Th