the tree of its branches and ever after
designate it by his name.

In the afternoon, whilst on my way to superintend the operations of the
men, a stratum of loose moss gave way under my feet and I had the
misfortune to slip from the summit of a rock into the river betwixt two
of the falls. My attempts to regain the bank were for a time ineffectual
owing to the rocks within my reach having been worn smooth by the action
of the water; but after I had been carried a considerable distance down
the stream I caught hold of a willow by which I held until two gentlemen
of the Hudson's Bay Company came in a boat to my assistance. The only bad
consequence of this accident was an injury sustained by a very valuable
chronometer (Number 1733) belonging to Daniel Moore, Esquire, of
Lincoln's Inn. One of the gentlemen to whom I delivered it immediately on
landing in his agitation let it fall, whereby the minutehand was broken,
but the works were not in the smallest degree injured and the loss of the
hand was afterwards supplied.

During the night the frost was severe; and at sunrise on the 3rd the
thermometer stood at 25 degrees. After leaving our encampment at the
White Fall we passed through several small lakes connected with each
other by narrow, deep, grassy streams, and at noon arrived at the Painted
Stone. Numbers of muskrats frequent these streams; and we observed in the
course of the morning many of their mud-houses rising in a conical form
to the height of two or three feet above the grass of the swamps in which
they were built.

The Painted Stone is a low rock, ten or twelve yards across, remarkable
for the marshy streams which arise on each side of it, taking different
courses. On the one side the watercourse which we had navigated from York
Factory commences. This spot may therefore be considered as one of the
smaller sources of Hayes River.

ECHEMAMIS AND SEA RIVERS.

On the other side of the stone the Echemamis rises and, taking a westerly
direction, falls into Nelson River. It is said that there was formerly a
stone placed near the centre of this portage on which figures were
annually traced and offerings deposited by the Indians; but the stone has
been removed many years and the spot has ceased to be held in veneration.
Here we were overtaken by Governor Williams who left York Factory on the
20th of last month in an Indian canoe. He expressed much regret at our
having been obliged to leave part of our stores at th