We passed one portage and the confluence of a river
said to afford by other rivers beyond a height of land a shorter but more
difficult route to the Athabasca Lake than that which is generally
pursued.
On the 28th we crossed the last portage and at ten A.M. entered the Isle
a la Crosse Lake. Its long succession of woody points, both banks
stretching towards the south till their forms were lost in the haze of
the horizon, was a grateful prospect to us after our bewildered and
interrupted voyage in the Missinippi. The gale wafted us with unusual
speed and as the lake increased in breadth the waves swelled to a
dangerous height. A canoe running before the wind is very liable to burst
asunder when on the top of a wave so that part of the bottom is out of
the water, for there is nothing to support the weight of its heavy cargo
but the bark and the slight gunwales attached to it.
On making known our exigencies to the gentlemen in charge of the Hudson's
Bay and North-West Companies' forts they made up an assortment of stores
amounting to five bales, for four of which we were indebted to Mr. McLeod
of the North-West Company who shared with us the ammunition absolutely
required for the support of his post, receiving in exchange an order for
the same quantity upon the cargo which we expected to follow us from York
Factory. We had heard from Mr. Stuart that Fort Chipewyan was too much
impoverished to supply the wants of the Expedition and we found Isle a la
Crosse in the same condition; which indeed we might have foreseen from
the exhausted state of Cumberland House but could not have provided
against. We never had heard before our departure from York that the posts
in the interior only received annually the stores necessary for the
consumption of a single year. It was fortunate for us that Mr. Franklin
had desired ten bags of pemmican to be sent from the Saskatchewan across
the plains to Isle a la Crosse for our use. This resource was untouched
but we could not embark more than five pieces in our own canoes. However
Mr. McLeod agreed to send a canoe after us to the Methye Portage with the
pemmican, and we calculated that the diminution of our provision would
there enable us to receive it.
The Beaver River enters this lake on the South-East side, and another
river which has not been named on the South-West. Both these rivers are
branches of the Missinippi as it is the only outlet from the lake. The
banks appeared to be rocky and the beach in many places sandy but its
waters are yellow and muddy.
