On The 20th We Got Into A Hilly Country And The Marching Became Much More Laborious, Even The Stoutest Experienced Great Difficulty In Climbing The Craggy Eminences.

Mr. Hood was particularly weak and was obliged to relinquish his station of second in the line which Dr. Richardson now took to direct the leading man in keeping the appointed course.

I was also unable to keep pace with the men who put forth their utmost speed, encouraged by the hope which our reckoning had led us to form of seeing Point Lake in the evening, but we were obliged to encamp without gaining a view of it. We had not seen either deer or their tracks through the day, and this circumstance, joined to the disappointment of not discovering the lake, rendered our voyagers very desponding, and the meagre supper of tripe de roche was little calculated to elevate their spirits. They now threatened to throw away their bundles and quit us, which rash act they would probably have committed if they had known what track to pursue.

September 21.

We set out at seven this morning in dark foggy weather and changed our course two points to the westward. The party were very feeble and the men much dispirited; we made slow progress, having to march over a hilly and very rugged country.

Just before noon the sun beamed through the haze for the first time for six days and we obtained an observation in latitude 65 degrees 7 minutes 06 seconds North, which was six miles to the southward of that part of Point Lake to the way our course was directed.

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