Fort Chipewyan on the 20th of July. Fort Resolu tion, on Great Slave Lake, was reached on the 8th of August.

The odd assemblage of goods and voyageurs in their encampment are thus graphically described by the traveler, as he glanced around him.

"At my feet was a rolled bundle in oil-cloth, containing some three blankets, called a bed; near it a piece of dried buffalo, fancifully ornamented with long black hairs, which no art, alas, can prevent from insinuating themselves between the teeth, as you laboriously masticate the tough, hard flesh; then a tolerably clean napkin, spread by way of table-cloth, on a red piece of canvas, and supporting a tea-pot, some biscuits, and a salt-cellar; near this a tin plate, close by a square kind of box or safe of the same material, rich with a pale, greasy hair, the produce of the colony at Red River; and the last, the far-renowned pemmican, unquestionably the best food of the country for expeditions such as ours. Behind me were two boxes containing astronomical instruments, and a sextant lying on the ground, while the different corners of the tent were occupied by a washing apparatus, a gun, an Indian shot-pouch, bags, basins, and an unhappy-looking japanned pot, whose melancholy bumps and hollows seemed to reproach me for many a bruise endured upon the rocks and portages between Montreal and Lake Winnipeck. Nor were my crew less motley than the furniture of the tent. It consisted of an Englishman, a man from Stornaway, two Canadians, two Metifs or half-breeds, and three Iroquois Indians. Babel could not have produced a worse confusion of unharmonious sounds than was the conversation they kept up."

Having obtained at Fort Resolution all possible information, from the Indians and others, relative to the course of the northern rivers of which he was in search, he divided his crew into two parties, five of whom were left as an escort for Mr. McLeod, and four were to accompany himself in search of the Great Fish River, since appropriately named after Back himself.

On the 19th of August they began the ascent of the Hoar Frost River, whose course was a series of the most fearful cascades and rapids. The woods here were so thick as to render them almost impervious, consisting chiefly of stunted firs, which occasioned infinite trouble to the party to force their way through ; added to which, they had to clamber over fallen trees, through rivulets, and over bogs and swamps, until the difficulties appeared so appalling, as almost to dishearten the party from prosecuting their journey. The heart of Captain Back was, however, of too stern a cast to be dispirited by difficulties, at which less persevering explorers would have turned away discomfited, and cheering on his men, like a bold and gallant leader, the first in the advance of danger, they arrived at length in an open space, where they rested for awhile to recruit their exhausted strength. The place was, indeed, one of barrenness and desolation; crag was piled upon crag to the height of 2000 feet from the base, and the course of the river here, in a state of contraction, was marked by an uninterrupted line of foam.

However great the beauty of the scenery may be, and however resolute may be the will, severe toil will at length relax the spirits, and bring a kind of despondency upon a heart naturally bold and undaunted. This was found particularly the case now with the interpreter, who became a dead weight upon the party. Rapid now succeeded rapid; scarcely had they surmounted one fall than another presented itself, rising like an amphitheater before them to the height of fifty feet. They, however, gained at length the ascent of this turbulent and unfriendly river, the romantic beauty and wild scenery of which were strikingly grand, and after passing successively a series of portages, rapids, falls, lakes, and rivers, on the 27th Back observed from the summit of a high hill a very large lake full of deep bays and islands, and which has been named Aylmer Lake, after the Governor-General of Canada at that time. The boat was sent out with three men to search for the lake, or outlet of the river, which they discovered on the sec

ond day, and Captain Back himself, during their absence, also accidentally discovered its source in the Sand Hill Lake, not far from his encampment. Not prouder was Bruce when he stood on the green sod which covers the source of the Nile, than was Captain Back when he found that he was standing at the source of a river, the existence of which was known, but the course of which was a problem, no traveler had yet ventured to solve. Yielding to that pleasurable emotion which discoverers, in the first bound of their transport, may be pardoned for indulging, Back tells us he threw himself down on the bank and drank a hearty draught of the limpid water.

"For this occasion," he adds, "I had reserved a little grog, and need hardly say with what cheerfulness it was shared among the crew, whose welcome tidings had verified the notion of Dr. Richardson and myself, and thus placed beyond doubt the existence of the Thlew-ee-choh, or Great Fish River.

On the 30th of August, they began to move toward the river, but on reaching Musk-ox Lake, it was found impossible to stand the force of the rapids in their frail canoe, and as winter was approaching, their return to the rendezvous on Slave Lake was determined on.

At Clinton Colden Lake, some Indians visited them from the Chief Akaitcho, who, it will be remembered. was the guide of Sir John Franklin. Two of these Indians remembered Captain Back, one having accompanied him to the Coppermine River, on Franklin's first expedition.

At the Cat or Artillery Lake, they had to abandon their canoe, and perform the rest of the journey on foot over precipitous rocks, through frightful gorges and ravines, heaped with masses of granite, and along narrow ledges, where a false step would have been fatal.

At Fort Reliance, the party found Mr. McLeod had, during their absence, erected the frame-work of a comfortable residence for them, and all hands set to work to complete it. After many obstacles and difficulties, it was finished.

Dr. King joined them on the 16th of September, with two laden bateaux.

On the 5th of November, they exchanged their cold tents for the new house, which was fifty feet long by thirty broad, and contained four rooms, besides a spacious hall in the center, for the reception and accommodation of the Indians, to which a sort of rude kitchen was attached.

As the winter advanced, bands of starving Indians continued to arrive, in the hope of obtaining some relief, as little or nothing was to be procured by hunting. They would stand around while the men were taking their meals, watching every mouthful with the most longing, imploring look, but yet never uttered a complaint.

At other times they would, seated round the fire, occupy themselves in roasting and devouring small bits of their reindeer garments, which, even when entire, afforded them a very insufficient protection against a temperature of 102° below freezing point.

The sufferings of the poor Indians at this period are described as frightful. "Famine with her gaunt and bony arm," says Back, "pursued them at every turn, withered their energies, and strewed them lifeless on the cold bosom of the snow." It was impossible to afford relief out of their scanty store to all, but even small portions of the mouldy pemmican intended for the dogs, unpalatable as it was, was gladly received, and saved many from perishing. "Often," adds Back, "did I share my own plate with the children whose helpless state and piteous cries were peculiarly distressing; compassion for the full-grown may, or may not, be felt, but that heart must be cased in steel which is insensible to the cry of a child for food."

At this critical juncture, Akaitcho made his appearance with an opportune supply of a little meat, which in some measure enabled Captain Back to relieve the sufferers around him, many of whom, to his great delight, went away with Akaitcho. The stock of meat was soon exhausted, and they had to open their pem

mican. The officers contented themselves with the short supply of half a pound a day, but the laboring men could not do with less than a pound and threequarters. The cold now set in with an intensity which Captain Back had never before experienced, the thermometer, on the 17th of January, being 70° below zero. "Such indeed, (he says,) was the abstraction of heat, that with eight large logs of dry wood on the fire, I could not get the thermometer higher than 12° below zero. Ink and paint froze. The sextant cases and boxes of seasoned wood, principally fir, all split. The skin of the hands became dry, cracked and opened into unsightly and smarting gashes, which we were obliged to anoint with grease. On one occasion, after washing my face within three feet of the fire, my hair was actually clotted with ice before I had time to dry it." The hunters suffered severely from the intensity of The cold, and compared the sensation of handling their guns to that of touching red-hot iron, and so excessive was the pain, that they were obliged to wrap thongs of leather round the triggers to keep their fingers from coming into contact with the steel.

The sufferings which the party now endured were great, and had it not been for the exemplary conduct of Akaitcho in procuring them game, it is to be doubted whether any would have survived to tell the misery they had endured. The sentiments of this worthy sav age were nobly expressed "The great chief trusts in us, and it is better that ten Indians perish, than that one white man should perish through our negligence

and breach of faith."

On the 14th of February, Mr. McLeod and his family removed to a place half way between the fort and the Indians, in order to facilitate their own support, and assist in procuring food by hunting. His situation,

however, became soon one of the greatest embarrassment, he and his family being surrounded by difficulties, privations, and deaths. Six of the natives near him sank under the horrors of starvation, and Akaitch and his hunters were twelve days' march distant.