Each Of The Party Sedulously
And Separately Recorded Their Observations On The Aurora Borealis; And
Dr. Richardson Contrived To Obtain From Under The Snow Specimens Of Most
Of The Lichens In The Neighbourhood, And To Make Himself Acquainted With
The Mineralogy Of The Surrounding Country.
The Sabbath was always a day of rest with us; the woodmen were required
to provide for the exigencies of that day on Saturday and the party were
dressed in their best attire.
Divine service was regularly performed and
the Canadians attended and behaved with great decorum although they were
all Roman Catholics and but little acquainted with the language in which
the prayers were read. I regretted much that we had not a French
Prayer-Book but the Lord's Prayer and Creed were always read to them in
their own language.
Our diet consisted almost entirely of reindeer meat, varied twice a week
by fish and occasionally by a little flour, but we had no vegetables of
any description. On the Sunday mornings we drank a cup of chocolate but
our greatest luxury was tea (without sugar) of which we regularly partook
twice a day. With reindeer's fat and strips of cotton shirts we formed
candles; and Hepburn acquired considerable skill in the manufacture of
soap from the wood-ashes, fat and salt. The formation of soap was
considered as rather a mysterious operation by our Canadians and in their
hands was always supposed to fail if a woman approached the kettle in
which the ley was boiling.
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