Its current was swift, and there were two rapids in this part of its course which in a canoe we could have crossed with ease and safety.

These rapids, as well as every other part of the river, were carefully examined in search of a ford but, finding none, the expedients occurred of attempting to cross on a raft made of the willows which were growing there, or in a vessel framed with willows and covered with the canvas of the tents, but both these schemes were abandoned through the obstinacy of the interpreters and the most experienced voyagers, who declared that they would prove inadequate to the conveyance of the party and that much time would be lost in the attempt.

The men in fact did not believe that this was the Copper-Mine River and, so little confidence had they in our reckoning, and so much had they bewildered themselves on the march, that some of them asserted it was Hood's River and others that it was the Bethetessy.

(A river which rises from a lake to the northward of Rum Lake and holds a course to the sea parallel with that of the Copper-Mine.) In short their despondency had returned, and they all despaired of seeing Fort Enterprise again.
However the steady assurances of the officers that we were actually on the banks of the Copper-Mine River, and that the distance to Fort Enterprise did not exceed forty miles, made some impression upon them, which was increased upon our finding some bear-berry plants (Arbutus uva ursi) which are reported by the Indians not to grow to the eastward of that river.

They then deplored their folly and impatience in breaking the canoe, being all of opinion that had it not been so completely demolished on the 23rd it might have been repaired sufficiently to take the party over.