tripe de roche which had been gathered during our halts in the
course of the march. Thermometer at six P.M. 32°.
Showers of snow fell without intermission through the night, but
they eeased in the morning, and we set out at the usual hour. The
men were very faint from hunger, and marched with difficulty,
having to oppose a fresh breeze, and to wade through snow two feet
deep. We gained, however, ten miles by four o’clock, and then
encamped. The canoe was unfortunately broken by the fall of the
person who had it in charge. No tripe de roche was seen to-day,
but in clearing the snow to pitch the tents we found a quantity of
Iceland moss, which was boiled for supper. This weed, not having
been soaked, proved so bitter, that few of the party could: eat more
than a few spoonfuls.
Our blankets did not suffice this evening to keep us in tolerable
warmth; the slightest breeze seeming to pierce through our debilitated
frames. The reader will, probably, be desirous to know how
we passed our time in such a comfortless situation: the first operation
after encamping was to thaw our frozen shoes, if sufficient fire
could be made, and dry ones were put on; each person then wrote
his notes of the daily occurrences, and evening prayers were read;
as soon as supper was prepared it was eaten, generally in the dark,
and we went to bed, and kept up a cheerful conversation until our
blankets were thawed by the heat of our bodies, and we had gathered
sufficient warmth to enable us to fall asleep. On many nights we
had not even the luxury of going to bed in dry clothes, and when the
fire was insufficient to dry our shoes,- we durst not venture to pull
them off, lest they should freeze so hard as to be unfit to put on in
the morning, and, therefore, inconvenient to carry.
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. Kichardson now took, to direct the leading man
in keeping the appointed course. 1 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 direction 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 countryjust
before noon the sun beamed through the haze for the first
time for six days, and we obtained an observation in latitude 65°
7" 06” N., which was six miles to the southward of that part of
Point Lake to which our course was directed. By this observation
we discovered that we had kept to the eastward of the proper course,
which may be attributed partly to the difficulty of preserving a
straight line through an unknown country, unassisted by celestial
observations, and in such thick weather, that our view was often
limited to a few hundred yards; but chiefly to our total ignorance
of the amount of the variation of the compass.
We altered the course immediately to west-south-west, and fired
guns to apprize the hunters who were out of our view, and ignorant
of our having done so. After walking about two miles we waited to
collect the stragglers. Two partridges were killed, and these with
some tripe de roche, furnished our supper. Notwithstanding a full
explanation was given to the men of the reasons for altering the
course, and they were assured that the observation had enabled
us to discover our exact distance from Fort Enterprise, they could