This circumstance determined us on encamping to dry the meat as there was wood at the spot.

We availed ourselves of this delay to visit the Copper Mountains in search of specimens of the ore, agreeably to my Instructions; and a party of twenty-one persons, consisting of the officers, some of the voyagers, and all the Indians, set off on that excursion.

We travelled for nine hours over a considerable space of ground but found only a few small pieces of native copper.

The range we ascended was on the west side of the river extending West-North-West and East-South-East.

The mountains varied in height from twelve to fifteen hundred feet.