Seeing nothing of
Belanger today we gave him up for lost.
On the 11th, after waiting until late in the morning for Michel who did
not come, Hepburn and I loaded ourselves with the bedding and,
accompanied by Mr. Hood, set out for the pines. Mr. Hood was much
affected with dimness of sight, giddiness, and other symptoms of extreme
debility, which caused us to move very slowly and to make frequent halts.
On arriving at the pines we were much alarmed to find that Michel was
absent. We feared that he had lost his way in coming to us in the
morning, although it was not easy to conjecture how that could have
happened, as our footsteps of yesterday were very distinct. Hepburn went
back for the tent and returned with it after dusk, completely worn out
with the fatigue of the day. Michel too arrived at the same time and
relieved our anxiety on his account. He reported that he had been in
chase of some deer which passed near his sleeping-place in the morning
and, although he did not come up with them, yet that he found a wolf
which had been killed by the stroke of a deer's horn and had brought a
part of it. We implicitly believed this story then, but afterwards became
convinced from circumstances, the detail of which may be spared, that it
must have been a portion of the body of Belanger or Perrault.
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