moose; for which purpose we wrapped ourselves in blankets between
its feet, and placed the hatchets within our reach. The night was
stormy, and apprehension kept me long awake; but finding my
companion in so deep a sleep, that nothing could have roused him'
except the actual gripe of a wolf, I thought it advisable to imitate
his example, as much as was in my power, rather than bear the
burthen of anxiety alone. At day-light we shook off the snow,
which was heaped upon us, and endeavoured to kindle a fire; but
the violence of the storm defeated all our attempts. At length two
Indians arrived, with whose assistance we succeeded, and they took
possession of it, to show their sense of our obligations to them. We
were ashamed of the scene before u s; the entrails of the moose and
its young, which had been buried at our feet, bore testimony to the
nocturnal revel of the wolves, during the time we had slept. This
was a fresh subject of derision for the Indians, whose appetites,
however, would not suffer them to waste long upon us a time so
precious. They soon finished what the wolves had begun, and with
as little aid from the art of cookery, eating both the young moose,
and the contents of the paunch, raw.
I had scarcely secured myself by a lodge of branches from the
snow, and placed the moose in a position for my sketch, when we
were stormed by a troop of women and children, with their sledges
and dogs. We obtained another short respite from the Indians, but
our blows could not drive, nor their caresses entice, the hungry
dogs from the tempting feast before them.
I had not finished my sketch, before the impatient crowd tore
the moose to pieces, and loaded their sledges with meat. On our
way to the tent, a black wolf rushed out upon an Indian, who
happened to pass near its den. It was shot; and the Indians carried
away three black whelps, to improve the breed of their dogs.
I purchased one of them, intending to send it to England, but it
perished for want of proper nourishment.
The latitude of these tents, was 53° . 12' 46" N., and longitude
by chronometers 103° 13' 10" W. On the 5th of April we set out
for the hunting tent by our former track, and arrived there in the
evening.
As the increasing warmth of the weather had threatened to interrupt
communication by removing the ice, orders had been sent
from Cumberland House to the people at the tent, to quit it without
delay; which we did on the 7th. Some altitudes of the Aurora were
obtained, the results of which will be noticed elsewhere.
We had a fine view', at sun-rise, of the Basquiau Hill, skirting
half the horizon with its white sides, chequered by forests of pine.
It is seen from Pine Island Lake, at the distance of fifty miles; and,
cannot, therefore, be less than three-fourths of a mile in perpendicular
height; probably the greatest elevation between the Atlantic
Ocean, and the Rocky Mountains.
A small stream runs near the hunting tent, strongly impregnated
with salt. There are several salt springs about it, which are not
frozen during the winter.
The surface of the snow, thawing in the sun, and freezing at
night, had become a strong crust, which sometimes gave way in a
circle round our feet, immersing us in the soft snow beneath. The
people were afflicted with snow-blindness; a kind of ophthalmia
occasioned by the reflection of the sun’s rays in the spring.
The miseries endured during the first journey of this nature, are
so great, that nothing could induce the sufferer to undertake a
second, while under the influence of present pain. He feels his
frame crushed by unaccountable pressure, he drags a galling and
stubborn weight at his feet, and his track is marked with blood.
The dazzling scene around him affords no rest to his eye, no object
to divert his attention from his own agonizing sensations. When
he arises from sleep, half his body seems dead, till quickened into
feeling by the irritation of his sores. But, fortunately for him, no