They
Were Also Desired To Put As Much Meat As They Could En Cache On The Banks
Of The Copper-Mine River On Their Return.
We then furnished them with
what ammunition we could spare and they took their departure promising to
wait three days for Mr. Wentzel at the Copper Mountains.
We afterwards
learned that their fears did not permit them to do so, and that Mr.
Wentzel did not rejoin them until they were a day's march to the
southward of the mountains.
We embarked at five A.M. and proceeded towards the sea which is about
nine miles beyond the Bloody Fall. After passing a few rapids the river
became wider and more navigable for canoes, flowing between banks of
alluvial sand. We encamped at ten on the western bank at its junction
with the sea. The river is here about a mile wide but very shallow, being
barred nearly across by sandbanks which run out from the mainland on each
side to a low alluvial island that lies in the centre and forms two
channels, of these the westernmost only is navigable even for canoes, the
other being obstructed by a stony bar. The islands to seaward are high
and numerous and fill the horizon in many points of the compass; the only
open space seen from an eminence near the encampment being from North by
East to North-East by North. Towards the east the land was like a chain
of islands, the ice apparently surrounding them in a compact body,
leaving a channel between its edge and the main of about three miles. The
water in this channel was of a clear green colour and decidedly salt. Mr.
Hearne could have tasted it only at the mouth of the river, when he
pronounced it merely brackish. A rise and fall of four inches in the
water was observed. The shore is strewed with a considerable quantity of
drift timber, principally of the Populus balsamifera, but none of it of
great size. We also picked up some decayed wood far out of the reach of
the water. A few stunted willows were growing near the encampment. Some
ducks, gulls, and partridges were seen this day. As I had to make up
despatches for England to be sent by Mr. Wentzel the nets were set in the
interim and we were rejoiced to find that they produced sufficient fish
for the party. Those caught were the Copper-Mine River salmon,
white-fish, and two species of pleuronectes. We felt a considerable
change of temperature on reaching the sea-coast, produced by the winds
changing from the southward to the North-West. Our Canadian voyagers
complained much of the cold but they were amused with their first view of
the sea and particularly with the sight of the seals that were swimming
about near the entrance of the river, but these sensations gave place to
despondency before the evening had elapsed. They were terrified at the
idea of a voyage through an icy sea in bark canoes.
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