Brules.

Our observations place Fort Providence in latitude 62 deg. 17' 19" N.,
longitude 114 deg. 9' 28" W.; the variation of the compass is 33 deg. 35' 55"
E., and dip of the needle 86 deg. 38' 02". It is distant from Moose-Deer
Island sixty-six geographic miles. This is the last establishment of the
traders in this direction, but the North-West Company have two to the
northward of it, on the Mackenzie River. It has been erected for the
convenience of the Copper and Dog-Rib Indians, who generally bring such
a quantity of rein-deer meat that the residents are enabled, out of
their superabundance, to send annually some provision to the fort at
Moose-Deer Island. They also occasionally procure moose and buffalo
meat, but these animals are not numerous on this side of the lake. Few
furs are collected. _Les poissons inconnus_, trout, pike, carp, and
white-fish are very plentiful, and on these the residents principally
subsist. Their great supply of fish is procured in the latter part of
September and the beginning of October, but there are a few taken daily
in the nets during the winter. The surrounding country consists almost
entirely of coarse grained granite, frequently enclosing large masses of
reddish felspar. These rocks form hills which attain an elevation of
three hundred or four hundred feet, about a mile behind the house; their
surface is generally naked, but in the valleys between them grow a few
spruce, aspen, and birch trees, together with a variety of shrubs and
berry-bearing plants.

On the afternoon of the 2d of August we commenced our journey, having,
in addition to our three canoes, a smaller one to convey the women; we
were all in high spirits, being heartily glad that the time had at
length arrived when our course was to be directed towards the
Copper-Mine River, and through a line of country which had not been
previously visited by any European. We proceeded to the northward, along
the eastern side of a deep bay of the lake, passing through various
channels, formed by an assemblage of rocky islands; and, at sunset,
encamped on a projecting point of the north main shore, eight miles
from Fort Providence. To the westward of this arm, or bay, of the lake,
there is another deep bay, that receives the waters of a river, which
communicates with Great Marten Lake, where the North-West Company had
once a post established. The eastern shores of the Great Slave Lake are
very imperfectly known: none of the trade