ugh to have a house ready for my reception; and I was not a little
gratified at perceiving a pleasant-looking girl employed in roasting a
fine joint and afterwards arranging the table with all the dexterity of
an accomplished servant.

March 6.

We set out at daylight and breakfasted at the Reindeer Islands. As the
day advanced the heat became so oppressive that each pulled off his coat
and ran till sunset when we halted with two men who were on their return
to Moose-Deer Island. There was a beautiful Aurora Borealis in the night;
it rose about North by West and divided into three bars, diverging at
equal distances as far as the zenith and then converging until they met
in the opposite horizon; there were some flashes at rightangles to the
bars.

March 7.

We arrived at Fort Providence and found our stores safe and in good
order. There being no certainty when the Indian who was to accompany me
to our house would arrive, and my impatience to join my companions
increasing as I approached it, after making the necessary arrangements
with Mr. Weeks respecting our stores, on March the 10th I quitted the
fort with two of our men who had each a couple of dogs and a sledge laden
with provision. On the 13th we met the Indian near Icy Portage who was
sent to guide me back. On the 14th we killed a deer and gave the dogs a
good feed; and on the 17th at an early hour we arrived at Fort
Enterprise, having travelled about eighteen miles a day. I had the
pleasure of meeting my friends all in good health after an absence of
nearly five months, during which time I had travelled one thousand one
hundred and four miles on snowshoes, and had no other covering at night
in the woods than a blanket and deer-skin with the thermometer frequently
at minus 40 degrees and once at minus 57 degrees, and sometimes passing
two or three days without tasting food.

...

CHAPTER 9.

CONTINUATION OF PROCEEDINGS AT FORT ENTERPRISE.
SOME ACCOUNT OF THE COPPER INDIANS.
PREPARATIONS FOR THE JOURNEY TO THE NORTHWARD.

CONTINUATION OF PROCEEDINGS AT FORT ENTERPRISE. SOME ACCOUNT OF THE
COPPER INDIANS.

March 18, 1821.

I shall now give a brief account of the Copper Indians termed by the
Chipewyans Tantsawhotdinneh, or Birch-rind Indians. They were originally
a tribe of the Chipewyans and, according to their own account, inhabited
the south side of Great Slave Lake at no very distant period. Their
language, traditions, and customs, are essentially