The Indian families about the house, consisting principally of women and
children, suffered most. I had often requested them to move to Akaitcho's
lodge where they were more certain of receiving supplies but, as most of
them were sick or infirm, they did not like to quit the house, where they
daily received medicines from Dr. Richardson, to encounter the fatigue of
following the movements of a hunting camp. They cleared away the snow on
the site of the autumn encampments to look for bones, deer's feet, bits
of hide, and other offal. When we beheld them gnawing the pieces of hide
and pounding the bones for the purpose of extracting some nourishment
from them by boiling we regretted our inability to relieve them, but
little thought that we should ourselves be afterwards driven to the
necessity of eagerly collecting these same bones a second time from the
dunghill.
At this time, to divert the attention of the men from their wants, we
encouraged the practice of sliding down the steep bank of the river upon
sledges. These vehicles descended the snowy bank with much velocity and
ran a great distance upon the ice. The officers joined in the sport and
the numerous overturns we experienced formed no small share of the
amusement of the party, but on one occasion, when I had been thrown from
my seat and almost buried in the snow, a fat Indian woman drove her
sledge over me and sprained my knee severely.
On the 18th at eight in the evening a beautiful halo appeared round the
sun when it was about 8 degrees high. The colours were prismatic and very
bright, the red next the sun.
On the 21st the ice in the river was measured and found to be five feet
thick and, in setting the nets in Round Rock Lake, it was there
ascertained to be six feet and a half thick, the water being six fathoms
deep. The stomachs of some fish were at this time opened by Dr.
Richardson and found filled with insects which appear to exist in
abundance under the ice during the winter.
On the 22nd a moose-deer was killed at the distance of forty-five miles;
St. Germain went for it with a dog-sledge and returned with unusual
expedition on the morning of the third day. This supply was soon
exhausted and we passed the 27th without eating, with the prospect of
fasting a day or two longer, when old Keskarrah entered with the
unexpected intelligence of having killed a deer. It was divided betwixt
our own family and the Indians and during the night a seasonable supply
arrived from Akaitcho. Augustus returned with the men who brought it,
much pleased with the attention he had received from the Indians during
his visit to Akaitcho.
Next day Mr. Wentzel set out with every man that we could spare from the
fort for the purpose of bringing meat from the Indians as fast as it
could be procured. Dr. Richardson followed them two days afterwards to
collect specimens of the rocks in that part of the country. On the same
day the two Belangers arrived from Fort Providence having been only five
days on the march from thence.
The highest temperature in April was plus 40 degrees, the lowest minus 32
degrees, the mean plus 4.6 degrees. The temperature of the rapid,
examined on the 30th by Messrs. Back and Hood, was 32 degrees at the
surface, 33 degrees at the bottom.
On the 7th of May Dr. Richardson returned. He informed me that the
reindeer were again advancing to the northward but that the leader had
been joined by several families of old people and that the daily
consumption of provision at the Indian tents was consequently great. This
information excited apprehensions of being very scantily provided when
the period of our departure should arrive.
The weather in the beginning of May was fine and warm. On the 2nd some
patches of sandy ground near the house were cleared of snow. On the 7th
the sides of the hills began to appear bare and on the 8th a large
house-fly was seen. This interesting event spread cheerfulness through
our residence and formed a topic of conversation for the rest of the day.
On the 9th the approach of spring was still more agreeably confirmed by
the appearance of a merganser and two gulls, and some loons or arctic
divers, at the rapid. This day to reduce the labour of dragging meat to
the house the women and children and all the men except four were sent to
live at the Indian tents.
The blueberries, crow-berries, eye-berries, and cranberries, which had
been covered and protected by the snow during the winter might at this
time be gathered in abundance and proved indeed a valuable resource. The
ground continued frozen but the heat of the sun had a visible effect on
vegetation; the sap thawed in the pine-trees and Dr. Richardson informed
me that the mosses were beginning to shoot and the calyptrae of some of
the jungermanniae already visible.
On the 11th Mr. Wentzel returned from the Indian lodges having made the
necessary arrangements with Akaitcho for the drying of meat for summer
use, the bringing fresh meat to the fort and the procuring a sufficient
quantity of the resin of the spruce fir, or as it is termed by the
voyagers gum, for repairing the canoes previous to starting and during
the voyage. By my desire he had promised payment to the Indian women who
should bring in any of the latter article and had sent several of our own
men to the woods to search for it.
