for our use, which was finished on the 2d July. Its extreme length was 32 feet 6 inches, including the bow and stern pieces; its greatest breadth was 4 feet 10 inches; but it was only 2 feet 9 inches forward, where the bowman sat, and 2 feet 4 inches behind, where the steersman was placed; and its depth was 1 foot 11¾ inches; there were seventy-three hoops of thin cedar, and a layer of slender laths of the same wood within the frame. These feeble vessels of bark will carry twenty-five pieces of goods, each weighing ninety pounds, exclusive of the necessary provision and baggage for the crew of five or six men, amounting in the whole to about 3,300 pounds weight. This great lading they annually carry between the depots and the posts in the interior; and it rarely happens that any accidents occur, if they are managed by experienced bowmen and steersmen, on whose skill the safety of the canoe entirely depends in the rapids and difficult places. Its weight is estimated at 300 pounds, exclusive of the poles and oars.”
At Cumberland House, which is situated four degrees and three quarters to the southward of Fort Chipewyan, it was not before the 10th or 12th of April, that the return of the swans, geese, and ducks, gave certain indications of the advance of spring. “On the 15th,” says Mr. Hood, “fell the first shower of rain we had seen for six months; and, on the 17th, the thermometer rose to 77° in the shade. The whole face of the country was deluged by the melted snow. On the 28th, the Saskatchawan swept away the ice which had adhered to its banks, and the next day a boat came down from Carlton House with provisions. We received such accounts of the state of vegetation at that place, that Dr. Richardson determined to visit it, in order to collect botanical specimens, as the period at which the ice was expected to admit of the continuation of our journey was still distant. Accordingly he embarked on the 1st of May.”
Agreeable to directions left by Lieutenant Franklin, applications were now made to the chiefs of the Hudson’s Bay and N.W. Companies’ posts, for two canoes, with proper crews, and a supply of stores, for the use of the expedition; but they were not able to comply with this requisition till the arrival of their respective returns from Isle à la Crosse and the Saskatchawan departments. Even then, the most material stores they could supply did not amount to more than
