Children to forty souls, was producing a serious
reduction in our stock of provision. He acknowledged the justice of the
statement and promised to remove as soon as his party had prepared
snowshoes and sledges for themselves. Under one pretext or other however
their departure was delayed until the 10th of the month when they left
us, having previously received one of our fishing-nets and all the
ammunition we possessed. The leader left his aged mother and two female
attendants to our care, requesting that if she died during his absence
she might be buried at a distance from the fort that he might not be
reminded of his loss when he visited us.
Keskarrah the guide also remained behind with his wife and daughter. The
old man has become too feeble to hunt and his time is almost entirely
occupied in attendance upon his wife who has been long affected with an
ulcer on the face which has nearly destroyed her nose.
Lately he made an offering to the water spirits whose wrath he
apprehended to be the cause of her malady. It consisted of a knife, a
piece of tobacco, and some other trifling articles which were tied up in
a small bundle and committed to the rapid with a long prayer. He does not
trust entirely however to the relenting of the spirits for his wife's
cure, but comes daily to Dr. Richardson for medicine.
Upon one occasion he received the medicine from the Doctor with such
formality and wrapped it up in his reindeer robe with such extraordinary
carefulness that it excited the involuntary laughter of Mr. Hood and
myself. The old man smiled in his turn and, as he always seemed proud of
the familiar way in which we were accustomed to joke with him, we thought
no more upon the subject. But he unfortunately mentioned the circumstance
to his wife who imagined in consequence that the drug was not productive
of its usual good effects and they immediately came to the conclusion
that some bad medicine had been intentionally given to them. The distress
produced by this idea was in proportion to their former faith in the
potency of the remedy and the night was spent in singing and groaning.
Next morning the whole family were crying in concert and it was not until
the evening of the second day that we succeeded in pacifying them. The
old woman began to feel better and her faith in the medicine was renewed.
While speaking of this family I may remark that the daughter, whom we
designated Green-stockings from her dress, is considered by her tribe to
be a great beauty. Mr. Hood drew an accurate portrait of her although her
mother was averse to her sitting for it. She was afraid she said that her
daughter's likeness would induce the Great Chief who resided in England
to send for the original. The young lady however was undeterred by any
such fear. She has already been an object of contest between her
countrymen and, although under sixteen years of age, has belonged
successively to two husbands and would probably have been the wife of
many more if her mother had not required her services as a nurse.
The weather during this month was the coldest we experienced during our
residence in America. The thermometer sank on one occasion to 57 degrees
below zero and never rose beyond 6 degrees above it; the mean for the
month was minus 29.7 degrees. During these intense colds however the
atmosphere was generally calm and the woodcutters and others went about
their ordinary occupations without using any extraordinary precautions
yet without feeling any bad effects. They had their reindeer shirts on,
leathern mittens lined with blankets, and furred caps; but none of them
used any defence for the face, or needed any. Indeed we have already
mentioned that the heat is abstracted most rapidly from the body during
strong breezes and most of those who have perished from cold in this
country have fallen a sacrifice to their being overtaken on a lake or
other unsheltered place by a storm of wind. The intense colds were
however detrimental to us in another way. The trees froze to their very
centres and became as hard as stones and more difficult to cut. Some of
the axes were broken daily and by the end of the month we had only one
left that was fit for felling trees. By entrusting it only to one of the
party who had been bred a carpenter and who could use it with dexterity
it was fortunately preserved until the arrival of our men with others
from Fort Providence.
A thermometer hung in our bedroom at the distance of sixteen feet from
the fire but exposed to its direct radiation stood even in the daytime
occasionally at 15 degrees below zero, and was observed more than once
previous to the kindling of the fire in the morning to be as low as 40
degrees below zero. On two of these occasions the chronometers 2149 and
2151 which during the night lay under Mr. Hood's and Dr. Richardson's
pillows stopped while they were dressing themselves.
The rapid at the commencement of the river remained open in the severest
weather although it was somewhat contracted in width. Its temperature was
32 degrees, as was the surface of the river opposite the house about a
quarter of a mile lower down tried at a hole in the ice through which
water was drawn for domestic purposes. The river here was two fathoms and
a half deep and the temperature at its bottom was at least 42 degrees
above zero. This fact was ascertained by a spirit thermometer in which,
probably from some irregularity in the tube, a small portion of the
coloured liquid usually remained at 42 degrees when the column was made
to descend rapidly.
