, and they
took possession of it, to show their sense of our obligations to them.
We were ashamed of the scene before us; 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 deg. 12' 46" N., and longitude by
chronometers 103 deg. 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.

We had a fine view, at sunrise, 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.{45}

The surface of the snow, thawing in the sun, and freezing at night, ha