Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/262

232 when it opened upon the Coppermine through a narrow gorge of perpendicular rocks. The noble view of the river, with its frozen windings through that wild waste of snows and mountains, repaid our fatigue; and we proudly drank of its melted ice, within fifty miles of the northern sea. I procured observations, which place the confluence of the tributary stream in lat. 67° 7′ 1″ N., long. 116° 21′ 15″ W., variation 48° E. The temperature at Fort Confidence was —20°; here it might be —25° or — 30°. We returned to sleep at our encampment of the preceding night. Some white partridges were shot in the course of the day; but the deer kept higher up on the hillsides, where, the snow being carried off by the winds, they find least difficulty in getting at the moss—their favourite food.

On the 4th we again breakfasted at the place where we had first fallen on the stream. Here our dogs luckily found the half-devoured carcase of a deer, which had been driven over the cliffs by wolves, four of which ravenous animals were scared from their feast by our approach. This was a most acceptable windfall, as our provisions were at a very low ebb. Conjecturing that the brook, by a circuit to the southward, might issue from the lakes where we were stopped on the 1st, (which it approaches, but which