Peltier, Who Had It In Charge, Having Received Several Severe Falls, Became Impatient And Insisted On Leaving His Burden As It Had Already Been Much Injured By The Accidents Of This Day, And No Arguments We Could Use Were Sufficient To Prevail On Him To Continue Carrying It.

Vaillant was therefore directed to take it and we proceeded forward.

Having found that he got on very well and was walking even faster than Mr. Hood could follow in his present debilitated state, I pushed forward to stop the rest of the party who had got out of sight during the delay which the discussion respecting the canoe had occasioned. I accidentally passed the body of the men and followed the tracks of two persons who had separated from the rest until two P.M. when, not seeing any person, I retraced my steps, and on my way met Dr. Richardson who had also missed the party whilst he was employed gathering tripe de roche, and we went back together in search of them. We found they had halted among some willows where they had picked up some pieces of skin and a few bones of deer that had been devoured by the wolves last spring. They had rendered the bones friable by burning and eaten them as well as the skin; and several of them had added their old shoes to the repast. Peltier and Vaillant were with them, having left the canoe which they said was so completely broken by another fall as to be rendered incapable of repair and entirely useless. The anguish this intelligence occasioned may be conceived but it is beyond my power to describe it. Impressed however with the necessity of taking it forward, even in the state these men represented it to be, we urgently desired them to fetch it, but they declined going and the strength of the officers was inadequate to the task. To their infatuated obstinacy on this occasion a great portion of the melancholy circumstances which attended our subsequent progress may perhaps be attributed. The men now seemed to have lost all hope of being preserved and all the arguments we could use failed in stimulating them to the least exertion. After consuming the remains of the bones and horns of the deer we resumed our march, and in the evening reached a contracted part of the lake which, perceiving it to be shallow, we forded and encamped on the opposite side. Heavy rain began soon afterwards and continued all night. On the following morning the rain had so wasted the snow that the tracks of Mr. Back and his companions, who had gone before with the hunters, were traced with difficulty, and the frequent showers during the day almost obliterated them. The men became furious at the apprehension of being deserted by the hunters and some of the strongest, throwing down their bundles, prepared to set out after them, intending to leave the more weak to follow as they could.

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