We loaded our provisions and baggage with our snowshoes and proceeded up river. We found the current very strong with many rapids which we ascended with the pole and tracking line. Seven of these rapids were so strong that two of us had to walk in the water with a canoe, while the other two men on snowshoes tracked it up by a line. At sunset we found a few bare stones in the mouth of a brook which we sat on all night, having come nine miles.

We proceeded through five miles of strong rapids, in places we had to carry the cargo to where the river expanded to a small lake which was frozen over. Having to break camp, we anxiously wished to clear away the snow down to the ground, but found it five and a half feet deep. We were obliged to put up with a fire on logs and sit on the snow.

After going five miles, we found the river with too much ice to allow us to proceed. We waited with patience on our beds of snow for the ice to clear. The forests here were of ordinary size with cedar, pines, birch, aspens, alders, and willows of three to twelve feet in girth. Hunting procured a few geese and ducks but not enough to sustain us and we had to take some of our dried provisions.