ing 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. The only bad consequence{10} of this accident was an injury
sustained by a very valuable chronometer, (No. 1733,) belonging to
Daniel Moore, Esq., of Lincoln's Inn. One of the gentlemen to whom I
delivered it immediately on landing, in his agitation let it fall,
whereby the minute-hand was broken, but the works were not in the
smallest degree injured, and the loss of the hand was afterwards
supplied.

During the night the frost was severe; and at sunrise, on the 3d, the
thermometer stood at 25 deg.. After leaving our encampment at the White
Fall, we passed through several small lakes connected with each other by
narrow deep, grassy streams, and at noon arrived at the Painted Stone.
Numbers of musk-rats frequent these streams; and we observed, in the
course of the morning, many of{11} their mud-houses rising in a conical
form to the height of two or three feet above the grass of the swamps in
which they were built.

The Painted Stone is a low rock, ten or twelve yards across, remarkable
for the marshy streams which arise on each side of it, taking different
courses. On the one side, the water-course which we had navigated from
York Factory commences. This spot may therefore be considered as one of
the smaller sources of Hayes' River. On the other side of the stone the
Echemamis rises, and taking a westerly direction falls into Nelson
River. It is said that there was formerly a stone placed near the centre
of this portage on which figures were annually traced, and offerings
deposited, by the Indians; but the stone has been removed many years,
and the spot has ceased to be held in veneration. Here we were overtaken
by Governor Williams, who left York Factory on the 20th of last month in
an Indian canoe. He expressed much regret at our having been obliged to
leave part of our stores at the Rock depot, and would have brought them
up with him had he been able to procure and man a boat, or a canoe of
sufficient size.

Having launched the boats over the rock, we commenced the descent of the
Echemamis. This small stream has its course through a morass, and in dry
seasons its channel contains, instead of water, merely a foot or two of
thin mud. On these occasions it is customary to build