Sir John Richardson - Arctic Searching Expedition (Sir John Richardson) - comprehensive & illustrated - (Literary Thoughts Edition)

Mr. Barclay, the British consul, assisted with much kindness in expediting our departure from New York. An order from the United States Treasury directed that our baggage should not be inspected by the custom-house agents, and it was without delay consigned to the care of Messrs. Wells and Co., forwarders, who contracted to send it to Buffalo, by rail-road, and from thence to Detroit and Saut Sainte Marie, by the first steam-boat, which was advertised to sail from Detroit on the 21st of April. Immediately on landing, the chronometers were placed in the hands of Mr. Blount, of Water Street, that he might ascertain their rate by comparison with the astronomical clock in the observatory. For this service Mr. Blount would receive no remuneration, but, on the contrary, said that he was glad of the opportunity it afforded him of showing his sense of the courtesy he had experienced from the hydrographer of the British Admiralty.

We received the chronometers next day, and embarked in the evening on board the "Empire," for Albany and Troy, with the view of proceeding, by way of Lake Champlain, to Montreal, where the canoe-men engaged for us by Sir George Simpson were ordered to rendezvous.

We waited one day at Whitehall, for the complete disruption of the ice on Lake Champlain, and did not reach Montreal till the fourth day after leaving New York. Sir George Simpson received us, with his usual kindness and hospitality, at his residence in La Chine, and expedited our arrangements by all the means in his power; but two days were spent in collecting the voyagers who were engaged as our canoe-men. Four of them, with the levity of their class, were absent at the time finally fixed for our departure, thereby, in terms of their agreements, incurring fines, which were afterwards levied by the Hudson's Bay Company.

The steamers commenced running on the St. Lawrence on the 18th of April; we embarked on the 19th, reached Buffalo on 21st, Detroit on the 23rd, and Saut Ste. Marie, at the outlet of Lake Superior, on the 29th, where we again found ourselves in advance of the season, the Lake being covered with drift ice.

At the Hudson's Bay House, the residence of Chief Factor Ballenden, we found two "north canoes," made ready for us, by direction of Sir George Simpson, and, having engaged four additional men to supply the place of an equal number who had failed to appear at La Chine, our crews now consisted of

FIRST CANOE.

Thomas Karahonton (dit Gros Thomas), an Iroquois guide.

Laxard Tacanajazè Iroquois.

Thomas Nahanajazè „

François Monegon „

Thomas Anackera „

Sauveur St. Martin Canadian.

Thomas Cadrant Half-breed.

Joseph Dinduvant „

SECOND CANOE.

Charlot Arahota Iroquois.

Louis Taranta „

Ignace Atawackon „

Ignace Sataskatchi „

Apoquash Chippeway.

Miskiash „

Piquatchiash (Peter) „

Two days were occupied in re-packing our baggage, instruments, and provisions, in cases weighing 90 lbs. each (being the established size for the portages); in which, and in all other matters connected with our equipment and comfort, we experienced great assistance and personal kindness from Mr. Ballenden. On the 2nd of May, 1851, we quitted his hospitable roof, but it was the 4th before the ice on the lake broke up, and permitted us to pass the portal of the lake formed by Gros Cap and Point Iroquois.

We accomplished the navigation of the lake on the 12th by arriving at Fort William, attained the summit of the water-shed which separates the St. Lawrence and Winipeg valleys on the 18th, the mouth of the River Winipeg on the 29th, Norway House, near the efflux of Nelson River, on the 5th of June, and Cumberland House, on the Saskatchewan, on the 13th; our passage through Lake Winipeg having been much delayed by ice, from which we did not disengage ourselves till the 9th.

We learnt at Cumberland House, that Mr. Bell had given the boats a thorough repair at Cedar Lake in the spring, had brought them and the stores up on the first opening of the Saskatchewan, and was now a fortnight in advance of us on his way to Methy Portage. The bulk of his party had been maintained at Beaver Lake on fish, but some having wintered in Cedar Lake, to look after the stores, and the fishery there having failed, there had been an unavoidable consumption of the pemican destined for the sea-voyage. The provision posts on the upper part of the Saskatchewan had fortunately been able to replace what was consumed, and Mr. Bell had started from Cumberland House with his boats fully laden.

He had left two men of the English party behind, who were unequal to the labours of the voyage; one of them, because of an injury received in the hand early in the spring, and the other owing to a recurrence of pains in the bones, with which he had formerly been afflicted. After carefully examining these men, I decided upon sending them to York Factory by the first conveyance which offered, that they might return to England in September, in the Hudson's Bay annual ship.

Having thus briefly touched on the line of route pursued by us in a journey of two thousand eight hundred and eighty statute miles, from New York to the wintering place of the boat-party, I shall detail the events of the remainder of the voyage in form of a daily journal. To have given a full account of the country travelled through between New York and the Saskatchewan, would have swelled the work to an inconvenient size; and I must, therefore, refer the reader, who wishes to have a physical description of that part of the continent, to Sir Charles Lyell's accounts of his recent visits to the United States, to Professor Agassiz's description of Lake Superior, and to Major Long's voyage to the St. Peter's, Red River, and River Winipeg. The Appendix to the present work also contains a summary of the physical geography of North America, wherein the lake basins of the St. Lawrence and Winipeg or Saskatchewan are particularly noticed. This may be consulted by the reader before he enters upon the narrative of the voyage, and I shall give in this place a few remarks, by way of preface to the botanical and geological notices which follow in the journal.

On the bluff granitic promontories and bold acclivities which form the northern shore of Lake Superior, the forest is composed of the white spruce, balsam fir, Weymouth pine, American larch, and canoe birch, with, near the edge of the lake and on the banks of streams, that pleasant inter-mixture of mountain maple and dog-wood which imparts such a varied and rich gradation of orange and red tints to the autumnal landscape. Other trees exist, but not in sufficient numbers to give a character to the scenery. Oaks are scarce, and beech disappears to the south of the lake. The American yew, which does not rise into a tree like its European namesake, is the common underwood of the more fertile spots, where it grows under the shade to the height of three or four feet, in slender bush-like twigs. On the low sandstone islands deciduous trees, such as the poplars and maples, abound, with the nine-bark spiræa, cockspur thorns, willows, plums, cherries, and mountain-ash. When we entered the lake on the 4th of May, large accumulations of drift snow on the beaches showed the lateness of the season; none of the deciduous trees had as yet budded; and the precocious catkins of a silvery willow (Salix candida), with the humble flowers of a few Saxifrages and Uvulariæ, gave the only promises of spring.

In various parts of the lake, the gorges lying between the jutting bluffs of granite or slate are filled with deposits of sand rising in four or five successive terraces to the height of more than a hundred feet above the present surface of the water. Mr. Logan has measured some of the most remarkable, and Professor Agassiz devotes an interesting chapter to the discussion of their origin; in which he comes to the conclusion that they were formed by the waters of the lake itself, and have been raised, at various intervals, from the beach to their present levels, by the agency of the innumerable trap dikes, which cross the rocks in many directions.