t here to state
that immediately after parting from the Indians, Paul Burns and Captain
Trench had their plans and hopes, in regard to exploration, overturned
in a sudden and effective, though exceedingly simple, manner.

On the evening of the day on which their travels were resumed they
halted sooner than usual in order to have time to form their camp with
some care, for the weather had suddenly become cold, and that night
seemed particularly threatening.

Accordingly they selected a spot surrounded by dense bushes, canopied by
the branches of a wide-spreading fir-tree, and backed by a precipitous
cliff, which afforded complete shelter from a sharp nor'-west gale that
was blowing at the time. In this calm retreat they erected a
rough-and-ready wall of birch-bark and branches, which enclosed them on
all sides except one, where a glorious fire was kindled--a fire that
would have roasted anything from a tom-tit to an ox, and the roaring
flames of which had to be occasionally subdued, lest they should roast
the whole encampment.

There, saturated, so to speak, with ruddy light and warmth, they
revelled in the enjoyment of a hearty meal and social intercourse until
the claims of tired Nature subdued Captain Trench and Oliver, leaving
Paul and Hendrick to resume their eager and sometimes argumentative
perusal of the Gospel according to John.

At last, they also succumbed to the irresistible influences of Nature,
and lay down beside their fellows. Then it was that Nature--as if she
had only waited for the opportunity--began to unfold her "little game"
for overturning the sleepers' plans. She quietly opened her storehouse
of northern clouds, and silently dropped upon them a heavy shower of
snow.

It was early in the season for such a shower, consequently the flakes
were large. Had the cold been excessive the flakes would have been
small. As it was, they covered the landscape by imperceptible but rapid
degrees until everything turned from ghostly grey to ghastly white,
which had the effect of lighting, somehow, the darkness of the night.

But in the midst of the effective though silent transformation the camp
of our explorers remained unchanged; and the dying embers of the slowly
sinking fire continued to cast their dull red glow on the recumbent
forms which were thoroughly protected by the spreading fir-tree.

By degrees the morning light began to flow over the dreary scene, and at
length it had the effect of rous