Notes on Samuel Hearne's Journey from a Bibliographical Perspective

32 Papers of the Biblio graphic al Society of Cana da 3 I /2----between manuscript ('M') and publish ed ('P') versions of th e map asto warrant distinct classifications for th e unpubli shed ones . Gloverdid not serve his readers well at all by ignoring Wilson's rem ark that'[tjhe P versions are garbled , fanciful and mu ch inferior to any of theM version s.v ! In the case of Hearn e's rout e around Point Lake,however , th e original map (Fig. 6)64 also appear s at odds with th edirection given in th e field not es. Its dark (green) line leads incon ­testably in a south -south -westerly direction, along the east side of'Pointe Lake,' and then south-westerly until it bisects Hearne'srepresentation of the tree-lin e - a featur e of his map, denoted by aline and punctuat ed by tiny drawin gs of conifers, that was notreproduced either in his book' s two editions or in the earli er pub ­lished vers ions of his map .6 S As well, ho wever, thi s drawing of th eroute , if it does not align with th e 'West &. North' of the field not es,appears to conform to the publi shed narrative 's account of Hearne'sreturn to trees: '.. . by th e side of Point Lake. After thr ee daysjourney , which only consisted of about eighteen miles, we came toa few small scrubby woods , whi ch were th e first that we had seenfrom the twenty -fifth of May, except th ose we had perceiv ed at th eCopper-mine River.'While it does not lie with in th e scope of this study to argue whichwas or was not Hearn e's rout e on 8 September 177 I , it is appropriat eto remark that this variant, or erratum, is a substant ive one . Areworking of the route und er the assumption of north west as thecorrect dire ction gives rise, as Peake has argued, to the defensib lethe sis th at the lake known today as Point Lak e (Franklin 's PointLake) was not Hearne 's, th at Hearn e's lak e is more likely today' sCourageous or anoth er mor e in the vicinit y of Lac de Gra s, farth er(south )up the Copperm in e River . If he had with him durin g his ownexplorati ons mor e than a copy of Hearne's m ap, would Franklinhave hauled a heavy quarto first editi on five decades after Hearnehad seen the Coppermine River, or would th e naval capt ain hav ehad with him the Dublin octavo, which as has been seen gives'South West' as the direction ?66Meanwh ile in thi s centu ry, becau seneither Tyrrell nor Glover not ed th e vari ant wh en preparin g theireditions, it is arguably no mor e th an chan ce that the rou te has bee ntaken as south west . The Hurtig 'facsimil e' reprint will serve onlyto confirm as much .33 Mac Laren : Not es on Samuel Hearne 's JourneyFIG . I- - - t- - kl olr-- - - ··- - - -Detail from: A Map exhibiting MR HEARNE'S TRACKS inh is two [ourni es for the discovery of the COPPER MINE RIVERin th e Years I no , In 1 and 1n 2 ; under th e direction of the 'HUDSON 'S BAY COMPANY (London, 1795, opp . titl e page).