By the first of March we began to leave the fine level country of the Athapuscows, and again to approach the stony mountains or hills which bound the Northern Indian country. Moose and beaver still continued to be plentiful; but no buffaloes could be seen after the twenty-ninth of February.
As we were continuing our course to the East South East, on the fourteenth we discovered the tracks of more strangers, and the next day came up with them. Among those Indians was the man who had carried a letter for me in March one thousand seven hundred and seventy-one, to the Chief at Prince of Wales's Fort, and to which he had brought an answer, dated the twenty-first of June. When this Indian received the letter from me, it was very uncertain what route we should take in our return from the Copper River, and, in all probability, he himself had not then determined on what spot he would pass the present Winter; consequently our meeting each other was merely accidental.
These Indians having obtained a few furrs in the course of the Winter, joined our party, which now consisted of twenty tents, containing in the whole about two { 280} hundred persons; and indeed our company had not been much less during the whole Winter.
From the strangers who last joined us we received some ready-dressed moose-skins for tenting and shoe-leather; also some other skins for clothing, for all of which the Chief at the Factory was to pay on our arrival.
I cannot sufficiently lament the loss of my quadrant, as the want of it must render the course of my journey from Point Lake, where it was broken, very uncertain; and my watch stopping while I was at the Athapuscow Lake, has contributed greatly to the misfortune, as I am now deprived of every means of estimating the distances which we walked with any degree of accuracy, particularly in thick weather, when the Sun could not be seen.
The Indians were employed at all convenient times in procuring birch-rind and making wood-work ready for building canoes; also in preparing small staffs of birch-wood, to take with them on the barren ground, to serve as tent-poles all the Summer; and which, as hath been already observed, they convert into snow-shoe frames when the Winter sets in. Here it may be proper to observe, that none of those incidental avocations interfere with, or retard the Indians in their journey; for they always take the advantage of every { 281} opportunity which offers, as they pass along, and when they see a tree fit for their purpose, cut it down, and either strip off the bark, if that be what they want, or split the trunk in pieces; and after hewing it roughly with their hatchet, carry it to the tent, where in the evenings, or in the morning before they set out, they reduce it with their knives to the shape and size which is required.