Nevertheless The Distance We
Completed Was But Trifling, And At Night We Halted Near A Lake, The Men
Being Tired And Much Bruised From Constantly Falling Amongst Thick Broken
Wood And Loose Stones Concealed Under The Snow.
The night was blowing and
hazy with snow.
On the 30th we set out with the expectation of gaining the Slave Lake in
the evening; but our progress was again impeded by the same causes as
before so that the whole day was spent in forcing our way through thick
woods and over snow-covered swamps. We had to walk over pointed and loose
rocks which, sliding from under our feet, made our path dangerous and
often threw us down several feet on sharp-edged stones lying beneath the
snow. Once we had to climb a towering and almost perpendicular rock which
not only detained us but was the cause of great anxiety for the safety of
the women who, being heavily laden with furs and one of them with a child
at her back, could not exert themselves with the activity which such a
task required. Fortunately nothing serious occurred though one of them
once fell with considerable violence. During the day one of the hunters
broke through the ice but was soon extricated; when it became dark we
halted near the Bow String Portage, greatly disappointed at not having
reached the lake. The weather was cloudy, accompanied with thick mist and
snow. The Indians expected to have found here a bear in its den and to
have made a hearty meal of its flesh, indeed it had been the subject of
conversation all day and they had even gone so far as to divide it,
frequently asking me what part I preferred, but when we came to the
spot - oh! lamentable! it had already fallen a prey to the devouring
appetites of some more fortunate hunters who had only left sufficient
evidence that such a thing had once existed, and we had merely the
consolation of realising an old proverb. One of our men however caught a
fish which, with the assistance of some weed scraped from the rocks
(tripe de roche) which forms a glutinous substance, made us a tolerable
supper; it was not of the most choice kind yet good enough for hungry
men. While we were eating it I perceived one of the women busily employed
scraping an old skin, the contents of which her husband presented us
with. They consisted of pounded meat, fat, and a greater proportion of
Indians' and deers' hair than either; and though such a mixture may not
appear very alluring to an English stomach it was thought a great luxury
after three days' privation in these cheerless regions of America. Indeed
had it not been for the precaution and generosity of the Indians we must
have gone without sustenance until we reached the fort.
On the 1st of November our men began to make a raft to enable us to cross
a river which was not even frozen at the edges.
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