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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 363 of 649
Words from 97895 to 98152
of 176017
