The weather was extremely variable during the month of June; we scarcely
had two clear days in succession, and the showers of rain were frequent;
the winds were often strong and generally blowing from the north-east
quarter. On the evening of the 16th the Aurora Borealis was visible but
after that date the nights were too light for our discerning it.
The mosquitoes swarmed in great numbers about the house and tormented us
so incessantly by their irritating stings that we were compelled to keep
our rooms constantly filled with smoke which is the only means of driving
them away: the weather indeed was now warm. Having received one of
Dollond's eighteen-inch spirit thermometers from Mr. Stuart, which he had
the kindness to send us from his post at Pierre au Calumet after he had
learned that ours had been rendered useless, I observed the temperature
at noon on the 25th of June to be 63 degrees.
On the following morning we made an excursion accompanied by Mr. Smith
round the fishing stations on the south side of the lake for the purpose
of visiting our men; we passed several groups of women and children
belonging to both the forts, posted wherever they could find a
sufficiently dry spot for an encampment. At length we came to our men,
pitched upon a narrow strip of land situated between two rivers. Though
the portion of dry ground did not exceed fifty yards yet they appeared to
be living very comfortably, having formed huts with the canoe's sail and
covering, and were amply supported by the fish their nets daily
furnished. They sometimes had a change in their fare by procuring a few
ducks and other waterfowl which resort in great abundance to the marshes
by which they were surrounded.
July 2.
The canoe which was ordered to be built for our use was finished. As it
was constructed after the manner described by Hearne and several of the
American travellers a detail of the process will be unnecessary. Its
extreme length was thirty-two feet six inches, including the bow and
stern pieces, its greatest breadth was four feet ten inches, but it was
only two 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.
