s about.

He might, however, have gone out, I thought, in search of game.

"Well, if he has gone, I trust that he will bring back something for
breakfast," I said to myself, "if he manages to hit with his first
shot."

Taking my spear in my hand, I at last set out, intending to track him.
The snow, as I have before said, had nearly all disappeared; but still
here and there I could trace his footsteps without much difficulty. I
went on for some distance till I arrived at a wood. I entered it, and
was soon utterly unable to discover in what direction he had gone.
Again I felt my inferiority to an Indian under similar circumstances.

I had left our pot and tin cup at the camp, and I feared that should I
push on in the attempt to discover him, I might lose myself altogether,
and not be able to make my way back. I accordingly returned to the
camp, having still some hopes that Pat, making a circuit, might rejoin
me.

I waited, but waited in vain. At last I became ravenously hungry. I
had the skin in which our meat had been packed, and singeing off the
hair, I cut a portion of it into thin strips. After the skin had boiled
for some time, I attempted to eat it, by cutting it up into very small
pieces. I managed to chew them, and to drink the water in which they
had been boiled. The food, such as it was, somewhat allayed the
gnawings of hunger. I still kept a portion for Pat, should he appear
without any game; but the day wore on, and he did not come.

Though I frequently before during our disastrous expedition had been
very miserable, I now felt more wretched than ever, beginning seriously
to fear that I should perish with hunger. While I thought of myself, I
at the same time thought of poor Pat, greatly dreading that some
accident must have befallen him--either that he had met a grizzly bear,
and had been squeezed to death, or been carried off and killed by
Indians.

If such had been his fate, the same might be mine. Still, I determined
to struggle on, so long as I had life to do so. The day was already so
far advanced that I thought it wiser to remain where I was, and not to
start off till next morning, when I intended to push northward, in hopes
of at last getting to the fort.

I passed the night in attending to my fire, and taking short snatches of
sleep. In the morning I boiled some more skin, and having eaten it,
slung the pot over my back and commenced my solitary march. I walked on
till nearly no