rcoal from
Beaulieu and inserted a track along the sea-coast which he had followed
in returning from a war excursion made by his tribe against the
Esquimaux. He detailed several particulars of the coast and the sea which
he represented as studded with well-wooded islands and free from ice
close to the shore in the month of July, but not to a great distance. He
described two other rivers to the eastward of the Copper-Mine River which
also fall into the Northern Ocean, the Anatessy, which issues from the
Contwayto or Rum Lake, and the Thloueeatessy or Fish River, which rises
near the eastern boundary of the Great Slave Lake; but he represented
both of them as being shallow and too much interrupted by barriers for
being navigated in any other than small Indian canoes.

Having received this satisfactory intelligence I wrote immediately to Mr.
Smith of the North-West Company and Mr. McVicar of the Hudson's Bay
Company, the gentlemen in charge of the posts at the Great Slave Lake, to
communicate the object of the Expedition and our proposed route, and to
solicit any information they possessed or could collect from the Indians
relative to the countries we had to pass through and the best manner of
proceeding. As the Copper Indians frequent the establishment on the north
side of the lake I particularly requested them to explain to that tribe
the object of our visit and to endeavour to procure from them some guides
and hunters to accompany our party. Two Canadians were sent by Mr. Keith
with these letters.

The month of April commenced with fine and clear but extremely cold
weather; unfortunately we were still without a thermometer and could not
ascertain the degrees of temperature. The coruscations of the Aurora
Borealis were very brilliant almost every evening of the first week and
were generally of the most variable kind. On the 3rd they were
particularly changeable. The first appearance exhibited three illuminated
beams issuing from the horizon in the north, east, and west points, and
directed towards the zenith; in a few seconds these disappeared and a
complete circle was displayed, bounding the horizon at an elevation of
fifteen degrees. There was a quick lateral motion in the attenuated beams
of which this zone was composed. Its colour was a pale yellow with an
occasional tinge of red.

On the 8th of April the Indians saw some geese in the vicinity of this
lake but none of the migratory birds appeared near the houses be