seen to rise from behind the sand-hills anounced, shortly afterwards, the approach of the men; and at a late hour, the Indian first, and afterwards the others, came in. De Charlôit groaned under the weight of a musk-ox's head and horns, while his companions were more usefully laden with the spoils of some good fat deer.

They had fallen on the river the second day, and described it as being large enough for boats. Returning along its banks by a wide lake, and two tributary streams as large as itself, they ascertained that it was really the same stream, the source of which I had thus accidentally discovered in the Sand-hill Lake close to us; which was now distinguished by the name of Sussex Lake, after His Royal Highness the Vice-Patron of the expedition. I had reserved a little grog for this occasion, and need hardly say with what cheerfulness it was shared among the crew, whose welcome tidings had verified the notion of Dr. Richardson and myself, and thus placed beyond doubt the existence of the Thlew-eechoh.

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CHAP. V.

Digression concerning Hearne's Route.

THE route of the celebrated Hearne intersected the country which has been just described; and there is no person interested in geographical research who will not thank me for interrupting for a moment the course of my narrative, in order to introduce the following observations on that traveller's geographical discoveries, for which 1 am indebted to Dr. Richardson.

"The adventurous journey of Hearne excited very great public interest at the time it was made, and will always form an epoch in the annals of northern discovery; for it gave the first authentic information of a sea bounding America to the northward, and also overthrew the numerous vague reports that existed of straits connecting the Atlantic and Pacific in parallels south of that to which he attained. Indeed, the high latitude assigned to the mouth of the Copper Mine River was so adverse to the opinions previously entertained by the advocates for the prosecution of a north-west passage, that Dalrymple was induced closely to examine the courses and distances recorded in Hearne's

Journal, whereby he discovered so great a discrepancy between the outward and homeward journeys as caused him to reject the higher latitudes altogether, or greatly to reduce them; and, in doing so, he was undoubtedly right, though Hearne complains bitterly in his preface of the injustice done to him. The fact is, that, when we consider the hardships which Hearne had to endure, the difficult circumstances in which he was frequently placed, the utter insufficiency of his old and cumbrous Elton's quadrant as an instrument for ascertaining the latitude, particularly in the winter, with a low meridian sun, and a refraction of the atmosphere greatly beyond what it was supposed to be by the best. observers of the period, and the want of any means of estimating the longitude, except by dead reckoning; this reckoning requiring an exact appreciation of distances, as well as correct courses, circumstances evidently unattainable by one accompanying an Indian horde in a devious march through a wooded and mountainous country; we shall not be inclined to view with severity the errors committed, but rather to think that the traveller's credit would have been strengthened and not impaired by his acknowledging the uncertainty of the position of the places most distant from Churchill. Unfortunately, however, Hearne himself thought dif

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ferently; and in his published narrative, which did not appear until twenty years after the completion of his journey, he attempts to establish the correctness of his latitudes by various unfounded assertions; one of which it will be sufficient to notice here. He states that on the 21st of July, though the sun's declination was then but 21°, yet it was certainly some height above the horizon at midnight, at the mouth of the Coppermine River.' Now it so happens, that Sir John Franklin encamped at that very place on the 19th of the same month, when the sun set at thirty minutes after eleven apparent time.' Dalrymple had also remarked, that Hearne subsequent to his celebrated journey committed a great error in estimating the distance to Cumberland House, and therefore questioned his general correctness; and this conclusion is parried only by Hearne's giving up his longitudes. as not being corrected by observation, but continuing to support the truth of his latitudes. We shall, however, show, that his error in these was still greater than in his longitudes; his observations, if any were actually made, having miserably deceived him. But we should greatly mistake, if the detection of various instances of disingenuousness led us to consider him as entirely unworthy of credit, and to deny the reality of his journey. We had an opportunity, on Sir John Franklin's first expedition, of convers

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ing with several old men who had belonged to the party of Copper Indians, that met Hearne at Congecathewachaga. The leading facts of his journey are still current subjects of tradition among that tribe, as well as with the Northern Indians and from all that we have been able to collect in the fur countries, as well as from an attentive examination of his narrative, we are led to conclude that he visited the various places marked in his map, in the order in which they stand; that all the rivers and lakes which he names actually exist; and that he has correctly described the general physical features of the country he traversed. His description of the lower part of the Coppermine River, in particular, is evidently that of one who had been on the spot. Hearne's original journal was very meagre, but, in common with all the residents in the fur countries, he seems to have had an excellent memory, and to have trusted much to it. By its aid, accordingly, and with the co-operation of Dr. Douglass, who edited his work, he has given an exceedingly interesting account of his travels and sufferings, together with very correct and important details of the habits of the various animals he was acquainted with. His printed work does not, however, quote his courses and distances so fully as his original journal (a copy of which we saw at Hudson's Bay); the ani