“At the junction of the Lewes and Teslintoo I met two or three families of the Indians who hunt in the vicinity.  One of them could speak a little Chinook.  As I had two men with me who understood his jargon perfectly, with their assistance I tried to get some information from him about the river.  He told me the river was easy to ascend, and presented the same appearance eight days journey up as at the mouth; then a lake was reached, which took one day to cross; the river was then followed again for half a day to another lake, which took two days to traverse:  into this lake emptied a stream which they used as a highway to the coast, passing by way of the Taku River.  He said it took four days when they had loads to carry, from the head of canoe navigation on the Teslintoo to salt water on the Taku Inlet; but when they come light they take only one to two days.  He spoke also of a stream entering the large lake from the east which came from a distance; but they did not seem to know much about it, and considered it outside their country.  If their time intervals are approximately accurate, they mean that there are about 200 miles of good river to the first lake, as they ought easily to make 25 miles a day on the river as I saw it.  The lake takes one day to traverse, and is at least 25 miles long, followed by say 12 of river, which brings us to the large lake, which takes two days to cross, say 50 or 60 more—­in all about 292 miles—­say 300 to the head of canoe navigation; while the distance from the head of Lake Bennet to the junction is only 188.  Assuming the course of the Teslintoo to be nearly south (it is a little to the east of it), and throwing out every fourth mile for bends, the remainder gives us in arc three degrees and a quarter of latitude, which, deducted from 61 deg. 40’, the latitude of the junction, gives us 58 deg. 25’, or nearly the latitude of Juneau.

“To make sure that I understood the Indian aright, and that he knew what he was speaking about, I got him to sketch the river and lake, as he described them, on the sand, and repeat the same several times.

“I afterwards met Mr. T. Boswell, his brother, and another miner, who had spent most of the summer on the river prospecting, and from them I gathered the following: 

“The distance to the first, and only lake which they saw, they put at 175 miles, and the lake itself they call at least 150 miles long, as it took them four days to row in a light boat from end to end.  The portage to the sea they did not appear to know anything about, but describe a large bay on the east side of the lake, into which a river of considerable size entered.  This river occupies a wide valley, surrounded by high mountains.  They thought this river must head near Liard River.  This account differs materially from that given by the Indian, and to put them on their guard, I told them what he had told me, but they still persisted in their story, which I find differs a good deal from the account they gave Dr. Dawson, as incorporated in his report.