On the following morning we made an excursion accompanied by Mr. Smith round the fishing stations on the south side of the lake for the purpose of visiting our men; we passed several groups of women and children belonging to both the forts, posted wherever they could find a sufficiently dry spot for an encampment.  At length we came to our men, pitched upon a narrow strip of land situated between two rivers.  Though the portion of dry ground did not exceed fifty yards yet they appeared to be living very comfortably, having formed huts with the canoe’s sail and covering, and were amply supported by the fish their nets daily furnished.  They sometimes had a change in their fare by procuring a few ducks and other waterfowl which resort in great abundance to the marshes by which they were surrounded.

July 2.

The canoe which was ordered to be built for our use was finished.  As it was constructed after the manner described by Hearne and several of the American travellers a detail of the process will be unnecessary.  Its extreme length was thirty-two feet six inches, including the bow and stern pieces, its greatest breadth was four feet ten inches, but it was only two feet nine inches forward where the bowman sat, and two feet four inches behind where the steersman was placed, and its depth was one foot eleven and a quarter 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 three thousand three hundred 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 be managed by experienced bowmen and steersmen, on whose skill the safety of the canoe entirely depends in the rapids and difficult places.  When a total portage is made these two men carry the canoe, and they often run with it though its weight is estimated at about three hundred pounds exclusive of the poles and oars which are occasionally left in where the distance is short.

On the 5th we made an excursion for the purpose of trying our canoe.  A heavy gale came on in the evening which caused a great swell in the lake and in crossing the waves we had the satisfaction to find that our birchen vessel proved an excellent sea-boat.

July 7.

This morning some men and their families, who had been sent off to search for Indians with whom they intended to pass the summer, returned to the fort in consequence of a serious accident having befallen their canoe in the Red Deer River; when they were in the act of hauling up a strong rapid the line broke, the canoe was overturned, and two of the party narrowly escaped drowning; fortunately the women and children happened to be on shore or in all probability they would have perished in the confusion of the scene.  Nearly all their stores, their guns and fishing nets were lost, and they could not procure any other food for the last four days than some unripe berries.