Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/223

Rh everything in readiness for our departure to winter-quarters.

The 10th was ushered in by a severe snow-storm and hard frost. At 7 in the morning our express, carried by Taylor and young Wentzel in a small canoe, started for Fort Resolution, and at the same moment we set out for Great Bear Lake. So strongly did it blow from the northward, that we had to tow the boats down the current; and it was late when we reached Bear Lake River. For the three following days we continued ascending its clear and rapid stream. Everything wore a wintry aspect; a good deal of snow fell, large masses of old ice lay undissolved on the beach, and the still parts of the river were newly frozen over.

On the 12th we saw some Hare Indians below the rapids. The path there led along the almost perpendicular face of loose rocky cliffs, and often on the edge of the rapids, where a single false step would have been fatal. It was the most dangerous tracking I had yet seen; but we all passed without accident. Indeed, throughout the fur countries, since the introduction of boats, deaths by drowning are of rare occurrence: during the old canoe system they were but too frequent; though I question whether they ever equalled the proportion of casualties among