AUG.

1839.

ANECDOTES OF THE GRIZZLY BEAR.

357

him by a single scratch of his tremendous claws, laying bare the skull, and pulling down the skin of the forehead quite over his eyes. Assistance being at hand, the beast was driven off; but the unfortunate man, although his life was saved, never recovered his sight after the event.

Mr. Drummond, who made a botanical trip to the Rocky Mountains, frequently met with these disagrceable companions. When he happened unintentionally to come suddenly upon them, they would rear themselves upright on their hind legs, and utter a loud, harsh, and rapid breathing. From what is known of the habits of these animals, it is certain that, had he lost his presence of mind and attempted to flee, he would have been pursued, overtaken, and torn to pieces. But the bold Forfar-man stood his ground to an inch, and beating a huge botanical box, made of tin, his discordant music so astounded the grizzly monsters, that, after eyeing the Scottish Orpheus for a few minutes, they generally wheeled to the rightabout, and galloped away. On one occasion he observed a male caressing a female, and soon after the couple came towards him, but whether by accident or design, he was uncertain. However, he thought there was no great harm in climbing a tree; and as the female drew near, he very ungallantly fired at and mortally wounded her. As usual in such cases, she uttered some loud screams, which threw the male into a most furious rage, and he reared himself up against the trunk of the tree on which Mr. Drummond was perched. Fortunately, it is so ordained that grizzly bears either can't or won't climb; and the female in the meantime having retired to a short distance, lay down, while the male, following to condole with her, was also shot.

Winter had fairly set in ere the expedition reached the head of the Coppermine, which they did on the 20th, and

358 FORT CONFIDENCE CONSIGNED TO DESTRUCTION.

SEPT

then proceeded across the country on foot to Fort Confidence, where they arrived in safety on the 24th of September, just as the shades of night were casting their sable mantle over the wintry scene.

*

*

Here, however, they were not to rest. The little fort in which they had, through the goodness of God, successfully struggled through so many dreary months, was to be abandoned; and the scene that ensued soon after their arrival was at once amusing and sad. "I despair," says Simpson, "of conveying an idea of the scene enacted by the natives during the two following days, which were occupied in settling with them, and packing up our own goods. They hurried in from all quarters; and as everybody wanted everything, the distribution of our commodities was rather a difficult problem. As for the clamour of young and old, Bedlam itself cannot match the ordeal we underwent. Our spare guns, kettles, ironwork, dogs, and sledges, were given to the most deserving. All were furnished with ammunition, for hunting their way to the regular trading-posts on the Mackenzie. Our old clothes graced the persons of our young fellow-travellers; and last, not least, the whole assemblage was abundantly fed. In the afternoon of the 26th this noisy scene was brought to a close, and we took a last leave of Fort Confidence. Larocque Maccaconce, and some of the old men and youths who had been most about us, appeared affected as we shook hands with them; but all the rest were too busily engaged in rifling our forlorn abode to notice our departure. Even before finally quitting the house, the parchment windows were cut out by the women and children; the legs of the few miserable chairs and tables were torn off; and by the time we were out of sight, I verily believe that not a single nail remained undrawn, or a scrap of any sort unappropriated, on the premises."

FEB. 1840.

MR. SIMPSON RETURNS TO RED RIVER.

359

In concluding this sketch of Messrs. Dease and Simpson's expedition, we think it right to give a brief account of the early and violent death of the spirited young man to whose energy and perseverance its successful termination must be partly attributed.

After leaving Fort Confidence, Mr. Simpson proceeded to Fort Simpson, on the Mackenzie, and thence, over the country on foot, to Red River settlement, at which place he arrived on the 2d February 1840, having traversed 1910 miles on foot in sixty-one days.

At Great Slave Lake, Mr. Simpson drew up a plan for an expedition to complete the survey of the coast between the extreme east of the discoveries of 1839, and the Straits of the Fury and Hecla, which he transmitted to the directors of the Hudson's Bay Company in London; at the same time offering to assume the command of the expedition without a moment's respite. At Red River he anxiously waited for letters in reply, which would authorize him to undertake it; but in consequence of his despatches not having reached England in time to be acknowledged by the spring canoes, he received no communication from the directors. Deeply disappointed at this, and unwilling to remain idly at Red River for a year until his offer could be accepted, he resolved to proceed to England.

With this end in view, he left Red River settlement on the 6th of June, intending to cross the prairies to St. Peter's, on the Mississippi, and proceed thence to England.

On leaving the settlement he was accompanied by a party of settlers and half breeds; but becoming impatient of their slow movements, he started ahead with four men. He travelled with great rapidity, as was learned from a chart, which was found with his other papers after his

360

JUNE

MELANCHOLY DEATH OF MR. THOMAS SIMPSON. [ 1840. death; on which their day's journey on the 11th of June was traced as forty-seven miles in a straight line.

"Subsequent to that date," writes Mr. Alexander Simpson in his brief memoir of his brother's life, "every circumstance is involved in mystery. All that can be ascertained with certainty is, that, on the afternoon of the 13th or 14th of June, Mr. Simpson shot two of his companions; that the other two mounted their horses and rejoined the larger party, a part of which went to the encampment where Mr. Simpson was alone, on the next morning; and that Mr. Simpson's death then took place. Whether he shot these men in self-defence, and was subsequently put to death by their companions; or whether the severe stretch to which his faculties had been subjected for several years brought on a temporary hallucination of mind, under the influence of which the melancholy tragedy took place, is known only to God and to the surviving actors in that tragedy."

Many different opinions exist on this point; some thinking that Mr. Simpson committed suicide, while others maintain that he must have been murdered by his halfbreed companions. The latter opinion is more generally received, as the half-breeds are a fierce, vindictive race, and Mr. Simpson had incurred their animosity, some years before, by inflicting a chastisement on one of them who grossly insulted him. But whether by his own hand, or that of an assassin, the young traveller's short but brilliant career terminated thus violently in the wilderness, and his body now rests in the distant settlement on the borders of the wide and lonely prairie.

THE stormy shores of the Arctic Sea had now been surveyed from Behring's Straits, on the west, to Castor and Pollux River (the farthest point reached by Dease and Simpson), and, from the shores of Hudson's Bay, on the east, to the Straits of the Fury and Hecla. Betwixt these two points a terra incognita of between two and three hundred miles existed, regarding which there was much variance of opinion among scientific men; some asserting that, from the nature of things, Boothia Felix must be a peninsula— others holding as confidently that it must needs be an island. To set this question at rest-which, by the way, involved the existence or non-existence of the north-west passage, at least in that direction-the Hudson's Bay Company resolved to fit out another expedition, which should proceed to Repulse Bay, and from that point start overland to survey the large bay which, it was supposed, separated the two extreme points of discovery.

Hitherto the expeditions which had been despatched to the polar seas by land, had carried on their operations chiefly during summer; depending upon supplies of pemmican and flour for their maintenance during the long winter of the arctic regions, should all other resources in the shape of fish and game fail them. The expedition now sent out, however, was conducted on quite a different principle. Spring, or, more correctly speaking, the latter end of winter, was the season during which its operations were to be carried out. Only four months' provisions were taken,