Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v3p1.djvu/16

 in launching the empty boats over three several ridges of rock which obstruct the channel of the White-Fall river, and produce as many cascades. I shall long remember the rude and characteristic wildness of the scenery which surrounded these falls; rocks piled on rocks, hung in rude and shapeless masses over the agitated torrents which swept their bases, whilst the bright and variegated tints of the mosses and lichens, that covered the face of the cliffs, contrasting with the dark green of the pines, which crowned their summits, added both beauty and grandeur to the general effect of the scene. In the afternoon, whilst on my way to superintend the operations of the men, a stratum of loose moss gave way under my feet, and I had the misfortune to slip from the summit of a rock into the fiver, betwixt two of the falls. My attempts to regain the bank were, for a time, ineffectual, owing to the rocks within my reach having been worn smooth by the action of the water; but after I had been carried a considerable distance down the stream, I caught hold of a willow, by which I held until two gentlemen of the Hudson’s Bay Company came in a boat to my assistance. During the night the frost was severe, and at sun-rise, on the 3d, the thermometer stood at 25&deg;.”

Oh his arrival at Cumberland House, which is situated between Pine Island Lake and the Saskatchawan River, Lieutenant Franklin found it impracticable to advance farther by water, before the return of spring; but being soon convinced of the necessity of proceeding, during the winter, into the Athabasca district, the residents of which are best acquainted with the nature and resources of the country to the north of the Great Slave Lake, and from whence alone guides, hunters, and interpreters can be procured, he immediately resolved to set out for Carlton House, Isle à la Crosse, and Fort Chepewyan, where, by his presence, he hoped to prevent delay in the necessary preparations for his ulterior proceedings. The manner in which he performed this long and dreary journey, the following extracts will shew:–

“The general dress of the winter traveller in this region is a capot, having a hood to put up under the fur cap in windy weather, or in the woods, to keep the snow from his neck; leathern trowsers, and Indian stockings, which are closed at the ancles, round the upper part of his mocassins, or Indian shoes, to prevent the snow from getting into them. Over these he wears a blanket, or leathern coat, which is secured by a belt round his waist, to which his fire-bag, knife, and hatchet, are suspended.

“Mr. Back and I were accompanied by John Hepburn, and provided