The course of the river is very winding, making in one place a circuit of seven or eight miles round a peninsula which is joined to the west bank by a narrow isthmus.

Near the foot of this elbow a long island occupies the centre of the river which it divides into two channels.

The longitude was obtained near to it 113 degrees 25 minutes 36 seconds and variation 27 degrees 25 minutes 14 seconds North, and the latitude 60 degrees 54 minutes 52 seconds North, about four miles farther down.

We passed the mouth of a broad channel leading to the north-east termed La Grande Riviere de Jean, one of the two large branches by which the river pours its waters into the Great Slave Lake; the flooded delta at the mouth of the river is intersected by several smaller channels through one of which, called the Channel of the Scaffold, we pursued our voyage on the following morning and by eight A.M.reached the establishment of the North-West Company on Moose-Deer Island.

We found letters from Mr.
Wentzel, dated Fort Providence, a station on the north side of the lake, which communicated to us that there was an Indian guide waiting for us at that post; but that the chief and the hunters who were to accompany the party had gone to a short distance to hunt, having become impatient at our delay.
Soon after landing I visited the Hudson's Bay post on the same island and engaged Pierre St.Germain, an interpreter for the Copper Indians.