ary, Augustus and two Dog-Ribs were sent forward to
be at the track in the line of my intended route. My departure being
fixed for the 20th, the charts, drawings, journals, and provisions were
distributed between the cariole and three sledges of which my train
consisted; and as the dogs were in too weak a condition for drawing
heavy burdens, two Indians were engaged, to accompany us four days, for
the purpose of carrying part of the pemmican. I afterwards delivered
written instructions to Captain Back, directing him to proceed to York
Factory as soon as the ice should break, and from thence, by the
Hudson's Bay ship, to England, taking with him the British party, but to
send the Canadians to Montreal. Augustus and Ooligbuck were to be
forwarded to Churchill, that they might rejoin their relatives.

[Sidenote: Tuesday, 20th.] At ten A.M., I quitted the Fort, accompanied
by five of our men and the two Indians, the latter dragging each sixty
pounds of pemmican on their sledges. Captain Back, the officers, and men
assembled to give us a farewell salute of three hearty cheers, which
served to renew my regret at leaving a society whose members had
endeared themselves to me by unremitting attention to their duties, and
the greatest personal kindness. We crossed the lake expeditiously,
favoured by a north-west gale, and then continued our course to the
southward until sunset. The mode of bivouacking in the winter, as well
as the course of proceeding, having been so fully described in my former
Narrative, and by several other travellers in this country, I need not
repeat them. We usually set forward at the first appearance of light and
marched until sunset, halting an hour to breakfast. The rate of walking
depended on the depth of snow; where the track was good, we made about
two miles in the hour.

On the evening of the second day, we were deserted by our Indian
companions, who, as we afterwards learned, took advantage of the rest of
the party being some distance in advance of them, to turn back to the
nearest wood, and there deposit the pemmican on a stage which they
constructed by the road side. Supposing that they had only halted in
consequence of the gale that was then blowing, we did not send to look
after them before the following morning, when every trace of their path
was covered with the snow drift; and as I considered we might possibly
spend some time in a fruitless search, I thought the wisest course was
to put the