We continued to advance in this manner, hauling, pulling, carrying,
and even launching the boat for about fifteen days, when we reached
an expansion of the river, without any perceptible current, and
sufficiently deep to admit of the use of the oar.

Our labour was now supposed to be at an end by those who had explored
the river; no further doubts were entertained as to our soon reaching
Esquimaux Bay, where letters from our friends and news from all
quarters would reward us for all our toils. Let not him who knows not
what it is to be shut out from his friends, society, and the great
world, year after year, think lightly of the reward which the solitary
trader, in his remote seclusion, values so highly. Our hopes, however,
were soon dissipated. Having reached the upper extremity of the
still water, we encountered difficulties that defied every attempt to
surmount.

The lake just referred to proved to be the source of the lower
stream; the rivulet that flowed into it from above being so shallow
as scarcely to admit of the passage of a small canoe. It was therefore
impossible to proceed with the boat, a circumstance that placed me in
a rather perplexing position; for I had the outfit for the interior in
charge, without which the business, so lately established with every
prospect of success, would fail.

There was, however, no time to be lost in vain regrets; the advanced
period of the season required instant decision, and our stock
of provisions was diminishing rapidly. I therefore determined on
proceeding to the outpost in the small canoe belonging to our guide,
taking two of the men with me, and leaving the rest of the crew to
erect a temporary post; and in the mean time sent my guide to apprize