Diary, 1903-1904, of trips with A. F. Camsell, Merritt Cary, and Alfred Emerson Preble to the Athabaska-Mackenzie region
Page 24
Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Contributed by Smithsonian Institution Archives. | www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Transcription
Wednesday July 22 The wind blew hard all day and we had no man on the island. It being little more than a bare week I have no observations worth recording. Thursday July 23 Toward morning the wind went down a little and at 5 am. we made preparations to start and got away shortly after breakfast. We crossed a narrow channel through the wind still blew quite hard and had Breakfast. The island being well wooded, had many bison on it and old squaws. We next made for more houses and entered a channel lying between two islands up which we sailed for several miles then turned nearly at right angles and made another quite long passage to the main shore. The wind was now almost en- tirely stopped. We then entered a beautiful bay (nearly enclosed by blows) on the eastern shore, in which, several Indians including Capuk Plane one of the most repeated of the Dogoris) have log houses. We then turned east ward into a narrow channel passing a small Indian burial place, of which I took a photo and after proceeding up it for some distance, camped Friday July 24. We left camp about 7 o'clock and soon entered the main part of the lake and travelled, though the wind was rather high until about noon when we were obliged to lie by on account of wind. Went up the shore half a mile or so to the houses of some Indians, where the late Bemah, one of the most enterprising of the Dogoris formerly lived we were not able to go on until nearly 4, when we started and travelled until 10 camping on a small island near the house of "Little paper" a Dogrib. I set our net and took a white fish before dark. Many red throated & Pacific Loons were seen during the day.