a lake, called the Great Slavelake. After having made a circuit round the greater portion of the northern fhore of the SlaveLake, on the 29th of June, at its wettern part, they entered a river to which Mr. Mackenzie has given bis own name, being then in a tract wholly new to Europeans; and they followed the courte of this fiream, of which the general direction was to the N. W. till it brought them to the Frozen Sea. This thort outline gives a very inadequate idea of the track: but, indeed, it cannot be well comprehended without confulting the map with which the narrative is accompanied. An Indian of a tribe called the Redknife Indians (to named from their copper knives) undertook to be their guide.

Their progrefs was made by day; for at night they always landed and fet up their tents; embarking again in the morning. The Indians of their party provided food by hunting, fhooting, or fishing; which, however, was not their fole reliance, fince they had taken a store of provifions in the canoe. They fre quantly faw places at which the Indians had refided, and sometimes they met with Indians: but the number of them bore a very small proportion to the extent of country through which the voyagers paffed, Towards the fea they defcended with the ftream. The natives, from whom they endeavoured to obtain information, gave exaggerated accounts of rapids and falls in their way; but they were all paffed with out much danger or difficulty.

The life of the unfettled North Americans must neceffarily be a fiate of habitual and unceasing apprehenfion; and accordingly Mr.

M. and his party had paffed nearly a week in Mackenzie's river, when they first met fome of the natives.

These people told the travellers that there were very few animals in the country beyond them, and that, if they proceeded, they maft perifh with hunger; yet one of the Indi ans was induced to accompany them by the offer of a small kettle, an axe, a knife, and some other ar ticles. "As we were ready to embark, (fays the author,) our new recruit was defired to prepare for his departure which he would have declined; but, as none of his friends would take his place, we may be faid, after the delay of an hour, to have compelled him to embark. Previous to his departure, he cat off a lock of his hair, and, having divided it into three parts, he faftened one of them to the hair on the upper part of his wife's head, blowing on it three times with the ut most violence, and uttering certain words. The other two he fastened, with the fame form-lities, on the heads of his two children."

The Indians of this village are defcribed as meagre, ugly, and ill made, patricularly about the legs, which were covered with feabs, " occafioned probably by their ha bitually roafting them before the fire ;" and many of them were in a bad ftate of health. They were of moderate ftature, and, as far as could be difcovered through the coat of dirt and greafe that covers them, of a fairer complexion than the generality of Indians who are the natives of warmer climates."→→ "Their lodges are of a very fimple ftructure: a few poles, fupported by a fork, and forming a fenicircle at the bottom, with fome branches or a piece of bark as a covering,

conftitutes

constitutes the whole of their native architecture. They build two of thele hats facing each other, and make the fire between them. The furniture harmonizes with the buildings; they have a few difhes of wood, bark, or horn; the vessels in which they cook their victuals are in the fhape of a gourd, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, and of watape, fabricatad in fuch a manner as to hold water, which is made to boil by putting a fucceffion of red-hot ftones into it. Thefe veffels contain from two to fix gal lons."

*

The following fentence will fhew the expedition with which the voy agers were carried towards the fea; Monday, July 6th, at three o'clock, in a

raw and cloudy morning, we embarked, and fteered weft fouth-weft 4 miles, weft 4 miles, weft-north-weft 5 miles, weft 8 miles, weft by fouth 16 miles, weft 27 miles, fouth-weft 9 miles, then weft 6 miles, and encamped at half past leven." The author has kept a regular and minute reckoning of the route, and in the history of each day has given an account of the progrefs: but it would perhaps have been more pleafant to the reader, and the route would have heen more readily comprehended, if the courfes and distances had been feparated from the narative, and form ed into a table.'

Indians were feen farther to the north, of more creditable appearance than those whom we have juft defcribed; " healthy, full of flesh, and clean in their perfons." The voyagers now found their guide fo

troublefome in requiring his dif charge, that they were glad to ex change him for another; who' allo foon took an opportunity of escap ing; but they had the good fortune fhortly afterward of procuring a third, more willing than either of the former. To the north of 67° of north latitude, however, the ri ver beginning to widen, and to run through different channels formed by large. iflands, they were beyond, his knowledge, and only determined on keeping the middle channel.

July 12th. The author took an obfervation in 69° 01′ N. and no. land was feen before them except illands. They made towards the, western point of a high ifland to the north, at which they arrived at five o'clock. Ice appeared to interrupt their farther progrefs; no land was feen to the north beyond the island on which they then were; and this was. the northern boundary of their voyage." As foon as the tents were pitched," fays Mr. M.I proceeded with the English chief to the higheft part of the itland.-As far as the eye could reach to the fouthweftward, we could dimly perceive a chain of mountains, ftretching far ther to the north than the edge of the ice, at the distance of upwards of twenty leagues. To the eastward we faw many iflands; and in our progrefs we met with a contiderable number of white partridges, now become brown. There were. allo flocks of very beautiful plovers, and I found the neft of one of them. with four eggs. White owls, likewife, were among the inhabitants of the place; but the dead, as well as the

living, demanded our attention, for we came to the grave of one of the natives, by which lay a bow, a pad dle, and a fpear."

The whole party were unwilling that, having gone fo far, they fhould be obliged to return without afcertaining whether or not they had reached the fea; and, in hopes that the ice would break up and difperle, they prolonged their ftay on the ifland. In this flation, the latitude was obferved 69° 14′ N. The longitude, by reckoning, was 1310 W, from Greenwich. [In the narrative it is faid, 1350 W. which must be an error of the prefs; the longitude in the chart being 134 W.] The variations of the compals was 36 degrees eafterly. Fifh were caught, among which were fome about the fize of a herring, which none of us had ever feen before, except the English chief, who recognited it as being of a kind that abounds in Hudfen's Bay."-"Tuefday 14th. Having fat up till three, in the morning, I slept longer than ufural; but, about eight, one of my men faw a great many animals in the water, which he at firft fuppofed to be pieces of ice. About nine, however, I was awakened to refolve the doubts which had taken place refpecting this extraordinary appear ance. I immediately perceived that they were whales; and, having ordered the canoe to be prepared, we embarked in purfuit of them. It was, indeed, a very wild and unreflecting enterprife, and it was a very fortunate circumstance that we failed in our attempt to overtake them, as a ftroke from the tail of one of these enormous fish would bave dashed the canoe to pieces." The fight of the whales fufficiently demonftrated the neighbourhood of

the fea; but we do not find any mention of experiments being made to determine whether the water, on which they navigated, was in any. degree falt or brackish. The fpot whence the whales were feen was named, by the author, Whale-island, and is nearly in the fame latitude (but 20 degrees more to the wet) as the part of the north coaft whence Mr. Hearne, in 1771, faw the fea. -The return to the fouth by thẹ fame river (Mackenzie's River) was a bufinefs of much more labour and fatigue than the voyage to the fea, fince they had to mount against a ftrong ftream, which required conftant exertion of paddling, or of tracking with a line on fhore. In one part of the river, where the breadth from fhore to fhore did not exceed 300 yards, the depth of water was 50 fathomis.

Moft of the Indians feen by Mr. M. to the northward, were at vas riance with the Elquimaux, whom they reprefented as being cruel and treacherous: but from thefe Efquimaux the author learned that, eight or ten winters, ago, they had leen large canoes to the weftward, fall. of white men, from whom they had obtained iron in exchange for leather.' From other information, imperfedly underfood, he had rea fon for conjecturing that the body of water or fea, into which Mac kenzie's river difcharges itfelf at Whale-ifland, communicates with Norton-found.

It will eadily be credited that hard travelling in a cold climate is an excellent ftimulant to the appetite; and the following inftance is here related: "We had confumed two rein deer, four fwans, forty-five geese, and a confiderable quantity of fish, in fix days, but it is to be confidered

confidered we were ten men and four women. I have always obferved that the north men poffeffed very hearty appetites, but they were much exceeded by those with me, fince we entered this river. I fhould really have thought it abfolute gluttony in my people, if my own ap petite had not increased in a fimilar proportion."

In the return, a ferious difpute took place between the author and the Indians of his party; and, in order to prevent it from growing to a quarrel, he fays, "I fent for the English chief to fup with me; and a dram or two difpelled all his heart-burning and dilcontent. He informed me that it was a cuftom with the Chepewyan chiefs to go to war after they had fhed tears, to wipe away the difgrace attached to fuch a feminine weakness."

On Saturday, September 27th, at three in the afternoon, the voyagers arrived in fafety at Chepewyan-fort, whence they had commenced their progrefs; and "here concluded this voyage, which had occupied the confiderable space of one hundred and two days."

The expedition of Mr. Mackenzie to the western coaft of North America, which is now the object of our attention, was an undertaking more arduous and enterprizing than even his voyage to the north. He begins his relation at Fort Chepe wyan, from which place he departed in October 1792; and, proceeding along the Unjigah or Peace-river, he arrived on the 1ft of November, at a place called the Forks, where the river branched in two directions, one running towards the fouth, the other to the weft. Keep ing in the western branch, the au thor landed a few miles beyond the

Forks, at a fpot to which people had been before fent to make preparations for erecting a house; and here he fixed his refidence for the winter. Fork-fort which was the name given to the place, is in latitude 56° 09′ N, and longitude 117 35′ W. from Greenwich,

The construction of a fort, ftorehoufes, &c. and the fettlement of various matters with the Indians, furnished Mr. M. with employ ment. Accidents likewife obliged him to make trial of his fkill in phyfic and furgery; and he had the fa tisfaction of being fortunate in his practice The following is related among other cafes: "One of the young Indians had loft the ufe of his right hand by the burfting of a gun, and his thumb had been maim ed in fuch a manner as to hang only by a small strip of flesh. Indeed, when he was brought to me, his wound was in fuch an offenfive ftate, and emitted fuch a putrid Imell, that it required all the refolution I poffeffed to examine it. His friends had done every thing in their power to relieve him; but as it confifted only in finging about him, and blowing upon his hand, the wound, as may well be imagined, had got into the deplorable ftate in which I found it." This cafe, at the rifk of his furgical reputation, Mr. M. undertook; and the patient received benefit, and was not ungrateful.

On the 9th of May, 1793, Mr. M. departed from the fort of the Forks, in order to profecute his weftern difcovery. The travelling party confified of ten men (includ ing himself); of which number, two had accompanied him in the former expedition, and two were Indians, intended to ferve as hunt

ers

ers and interpreters. The whole were embarked in one canoe, which was twenty-five feet long within, and four feet nine inches broad: at the fame time it was fo light, that two men could carry it on a good road three or four miles without refting. In this veffel, befides the company, were fhipped provifions, ammunition, goods for prefents, &c. to the weight of 3000lbs. They began the voyage against a ftrong current, the Unjigab-river difcharging itself into the Slave-lake to the north-eastward, and the direction purfued by the party being towards the S. W. The country through which they had firft paffed, the author writes, difplayed a fucceffion of the most beautiful fcenery which he had ever beheld: but the rapidi ty of the ftream rendered the navigation dangerous, and extremely laborious. In one part of the river they were obliged to unload four times in the fpace of two miles, and to carry every thing but the canoe. Against fuch obftacles, however, the perfeverance of Mr. Mackenzie at length prevailed. In order to lighten the canoe, moft of the party walked. "Mr. Mackay informed me (fays the writer) that, in paffing over the mountains, he obferved feveral chalms in the earth that emitted heat and fmoke, which diffufed a ftrong fulphurous flench. I hould have visited this phenomenon, if I had been fufficiently qualified as a naturalift to have offered fcientific obfervations thereon."

On June 12th, they reached the head of the Unjigah-river, at what the author believes to be its most fouthern fource. They procured a guide in the route; and here they found a carrying place that led, at

817 paces diftance, to a fmall lake, whence they arrived at another river, the current of which was foon found to take a southern direction. Mr. M. has fuppofed this to be the Columbia, or a branch of that river. In defcending this fiream, the voyagers very narrowly efcaped being wrecked: but, were we to extract the paffage, or to be more particular in the defcription of the ronte, we should too much lengthen our account. From information which Mr. M. acquired from the Indians with whom he met, he learned that, at fome dif tance to the weftward of the river, which they were navigating, there was another which led to the fea; "I called thofe of my people about me," he fays, "who had not been prefent at my confultation with the natives; and after pafling a warm eulogium on their fortitude, patience, and perfeverance, I ftated the dif ficulties that threatened our com tinuing to navigate the river, the length of time it would require, and the fcanty provifion we had for fuch a voyage: I then proceeded for the foregoing reasons to propofe a fhorter route, by trying the over-land road to the fea." This propolition was zealoufly adopted by all.They were obliged to remount the ftream, in order to regain a fiation more convenient for depofiting fuch things as they could not carry with them, than the place at which they had formed the refolution; and their canoe had fnffered fo much damage, that it became neceflary to build a new one. This however, was a work of only three days. The canoe was placed under a covering of fmall trees and branches, and with it were pat many other things; but the pro

vilions,