During The Latter Part Of The Day We Had Seen
Numerous Tracks Of The Moose, Buffalo, And Marten.
December 26.
The weather was so cold that we were compelled to run to prevent
ourselves from freezing; our route lay across some large meadows which
appeared to abound in animals, though the Indians around Slave Lake are
in a state of great want. About noon we passed a sulphur-stream which ran
into the river; it appeared to come from a plain about fifty yards
distant. There were no rocks near it and the soil through which it took
its course was composed of a reddish clay. I was much galled by the
strings of the snowshoes during the day and once got a severe fall
occasioned by the dogs running over one of my feet and, dragging me some
distance, my snowshoe having become entangled with the sledge. In the
evening we lost our way from the great similarity of appearance in the
country and it was dark before we found it again when we halted in a
thick wood after having come about sixteen miles from the last
encampment. Much snow fell during the night.
At an early hour on the 27th of December we continued our journey over
the surface of a long but narrow lake and then through a wood which
brought us to the grand detour on the Slave River. The weather was
extremely cloudy with occasional falls of snow which tended greatly to
impede our progress from its gathering in lumps between the dogs' toes;
and though they did not go very fast yet my left knee pained me so much
that I found it difficult to keep up with them.
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