NTERPRISE.

September 1820.

During our little expedition to the Copper-Mine River Mr. Wentzel had
made great progress in the erection of our winter-house having nearly
roofed it in. But before proceeding to give an account of a ten months'
residence at this place, henceforth designated Fort Enterprise, I may
premise that I shall omit many of the ordinary occurrences of a North
American winter as they have been already detailed in so able and
interesting a manner by Ellis* and confine myself principally to the
circumstances which had an influence on our progress in the ensuing
summer. The observations on the magnetic needle, the temperature of the
atmosphere, the Aurora Borealis, and other meteorological phenomena,
together with the mineralogical and botanical notices, being less
interesting to the general reader, are omitted in this edition.

(*Footnote. Voyage to Hudson's Bay in the Dobbs and California.)

The men continued to work diligently at the house and by the 30th of
September had nearly completed it for our reception when a heavy fall of
rain washed the greater part of the mud off the roof. This rain was
remarked by the Indians as unusual after what they had deemed so decided
a commencement of winter in the early part of the month. The mean
temperature for the month was 33 3/4 degrees, but the thermometer had
sunk as low as 16 degrees and on one occasion rose to 53 degrees.

Besides the party constantly employed at the house two men were appointed
to fish and others were occasionally sent for meat as the hunters
procured it. This latter employment, although extremely laborious, was
always relished by the Canadians as they never failed to use a
prescriptive right of helping themselves to the fattest and most delicate
parts of the deer. Towards the end of the month the reindeer began to
quit the barren grounds and came into the vicinity of the house on their
way to the woods and, the success of the hunters being consequently
great, the necessity of sending for the meat considerably retarded the
building of the house. In the meantime we resided in our canvas tents
which proved very cold habitations although we maintained a fire in front
of them and also endeavoured to protect ourselves from the piercing winds
by a barricade of pine branches.

On the 6th of October, the house being completed, we struck our tents and
removed into it. It was merely a log building, fifty feet long and
twenty-four wide, divided