We Encamped
At Sunset At The End Of Fourteen Miles, Having Walked The Whole Way Along
The River Which Preserves Nearly A True North Course And Is From Four
Hundred To Six Hundred Yards Broad.
The banks are high and well clothed
with the liard, spruce, fir, alder, birch-tree and willows.
Having come
nineteen miles and a half on the 23rd we encamped among pines of a great
height and girth.
Showers of snow fell until noon on the following day but we continued our
journey along the river whose banks and islands became gradually lower as
we advanced and less abundantly supplied with wood except willows. We
passed an old Canadian who was resting his wearied dogs during the heat
of the sun. He was carrying meat from some Indian lodges to Fort
Chipewyan, having a burden exceeding two hundred and fifty pounds on his
sledge which was dragged by two miserable dogs. He came up to our
encampment after dark. We were much amused by the altercation that took
place between him and our Canadian companions as to the qualifications of
their respective dogs. This however is such a general topic of
conversation among the voyagers in the encampment that we should not
probably have remarked it had not the old man frequently offered to bet
the whole of his wages that his two dogs, poor and lean as they were,
would drag their load to the Athabasca Lake in less time than any three
of theirs.
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