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 the execution of the service. The following particulars are extracted from the official narratives of the officers engaged in this extremely hazardous undertaking:

This appears to have been occasioned by the arrival of the Prince of Wales and two other ships from England having given full occupation to the Company’s boatmen, the whole of whom were required to convey the necessary stores to the posts in the interior, before the commencement of winter.

On the 9th of September, our enterprising travellers commenced the laborious ascent of the different rapid streams between York Factory and Cumberland House, a distance by water of about 600 miles, which they were not able to accomplish before the 23d of the following month. The published charts of their route convey so correct a view of the numerous rivers, rapids, portages, and lakes, and the difficulties and impediments which occur in the long river-navigations of North America; and these obstructions have been so minutely detailed by Messrs. Hearne and Mackenzie, that it is unnecessary for us to extract more than one passage relative to them: the little space we can afford will be better appropriated to matters of higher interest.

“The whole of the 2d of October,” says Lieutenant Franklin, “was spent in carrying the cargoes over a portage of 1300 yards in length, and