ade's gun, the head is dropt, and they both fire nearly at the same
instant. The herd scampers off, the hunters trot after them; in a short
time the poor animals halt to ascertain the cause of their terror, their
foes stop at the same instant, and having loaded as they ran, greet the
gazers with a second fatal discharge. The consternation of the deer
increases, they run to and fro in the utmost confusion, and sometimes a
great part of the herd is destroyed within the space of a few hundred
yards.

A party who had been sent to Akaitcho returned, bringing three hundred
and seventy pounds of dried meat, and two hundred and twenty pounds of
suet, together with the unpleasant information, that a still larger
quantity of the latter article had been found and carried off, as he
supposed, by some Dog-ribs, who had passed that way.

The weather becoming daily colder, all the lakes in the neighbourhood of
the house were completely, and the river partially, frozen over by the
middle of the month. The rein-deer now began to quit us for more
southerly and better-sheltered pastures. Indeed, their longer residence
in our neighbourhood would have been of little service to us, for our
ammunition was almost completely expended, though we had dealt it of
late with a very sparing hand to the Indians. We had, however, already
secured in the store-house the carcases of one hundred deer, together
with one thousand pounds of suet, and some dried meat; and had,
moreover, eighty deer stowed up at various distances from the house. The
necessity of employing the men to build a house for themselves, before
the weather became too severe, obliged us to put the latter _en cache_,
as the voyagers term it, instead of adopting the more safe plan of
bringing them to the house. Putting a deer _en cache_, means merely
protecting it against the wolves, and still more destructive wolverenes,
by heavy loads of wood or stones; the latter animal, however, sometimes
digs underneath the pile, and renders the precaution abortive.

On the 18th, Mr. Back and Mr. Wentzel set out for Fort Providence,
accompanied by Beauparlant, Belanger, and two Indians, Akaiyazza and
Thoolezzeh, with their wives, the Little Forehead, and the Smiling
Marten. Mr. Back had volunteered to go and make the necessary
arrangements for transporting the stores we expected from Cumberland
House, and to endeavour to obtain some additional supplies from the
establishments at Slave Lake. If any a