Page:Narrative of the Discoveries on the North Coast of America.djvu/428

398 valuable friend Chief Trader M'Pherson, who had for some time abandoned all hopes of our arrival this year.

The ice continued driving down the River of the Mountains till the 3rd of November, when it finally stopped; and, nineteen days later, the broad surface of the Mackenzie itself became one solid rugged mass, the temperature at the time being below —20°. Mr. M'Pherson informed me that the coldest winter-winds felt at Fort Simpson are the south-eastern, being those which blow over the frozen expanse of Great Slave Lake; while the westerly, which descend from the Rocky Mountains, sometimes produce a thaw! The variation of the compass I found had decreased from 37° 10′ in June 1837, to 35° 15′ in October 1839.

The winter subsistence of the few people who are enabled to remain at this establishment consists almost wholly of fish, brought down in boats from Great Slave Lake by the last open water. Mr. M'Pherson had, indeed, succeeded this season in raising five hundred bushels of potatoes; but these, and other vegetables, are considered by the voyageurs and their families throughout the country as merely extra to the almost incredible rations of fish and flesh which they consume. Our evening recreations at