e climes. For
hundreds of miles he travelled along the east coast of Hudson's Bay and
the southern shores of the Straits, now driven ashore by the storm, anon
interrupted by drift-ice, and obliged to carry his canoe for miles and
miles on his shoulders, while the faithful Aneetka trudged by his side,
happy as the day was long; for, although her load was necessarily a
heavy one, her love for Maximus made it rest lighter than the eider-down
that floated from her fingers when she plucked the wild birds for their
evening meal. Moggy, too, waddled along after her own fashion, with a
resolution and energy that said much for her strength and constitution.
She only carried the light paddles and a few trifling articles that did
not incommode her much.

During the spring and summer and autumn they pursued their arduous
journey, living from hand to mouth on the produce of their guns, nets,
seal-spears, and fishing-lines, which generally supplied them with
enough for their daily wants, sometimes with abundance, but not
unfrequently with just sufficient to keep them alive. Three or four
times they met with Esquimaux, and rendered essential service to them,
and to the fur-traders, by telling them of the new fort at Ungava,
recounting the wonders of the store there, and assuring them that the
chief desire of the traders, after getting their furs, was to do them
good, and bring about friendly intercourse between them and the Indians.

Late in the autumn the three voyageurs drew near to Ungava Bay, and in
passing along the coast opposite to the island on which Edith had spent
the winter, they overtook Annatock and his whole tribe, with a flotilla
of oomiaks and kayaks, on their way to the same place. At the mouth of
the bay they were joined by the Esquimaux of False River, who were
carrying supplies of seal-blubber to the fort for the use of the dogs in
winter, and a few deerskins to trade.

It was a bright and beautiful autumn afternoon (a rare blessing in that
dreary clime) when they passed the narrows of the river, and came in
sight of Fort Chimo.

On that day an unusually successful deer-hunt had taken place, and the
fiddle had, as Bryan expressed it, been "sarved out" to the men, for the
purpose of rejoicing their hearts with sweet sounds. On that day a
small band of Indians had arrived with a rich and unusually large stock
of furs, among which there were one or two silver foxes and a choice lot
of superb martens. This te