d as the weather became more severe was given up
on the 5th. It had procured us about one thousand two hundred white-fish,
from two to three pounds each. There are two other species of Coregoni in
Winter Lake, Back's grayling and the round-fish; and a few trout, pike,
methye, and red carp were also occasionally obtained from the nets. It
may be worthy of notice here that the fish froze as they were taken out
of the nets, in a short time became a solid mass of ice and, by a blow or
two of the hatchet, were easily split open, when the intestines might be
removed in one lump. If in this completely frozen state they were thawed
before the fire they recovered their animation. This was particularly the
case with the carp and we had occasion to observe it repeatedly as Dr.
Richardson occupied himself with examining the structure of the different
species of fish and was always in the winter under the necessity of
thawing them before he could cut them. We have seen a carp recover so far
as to leap about with much vigour after it had been frozen for thirty-six
hours.

From the 12th to the 16th we had fine and, for the season, warm weather;
and the deer, which had not been seen since the 26th of October,
reappeared in the neighbourhood of the house, to the surprise of the
Indians who attributed their return to the barren grounds to the unusual
mildness of the season. On this occasion, by melting some of our pewter
cups, we managed to furnish five balls to each of the hunters, but they
were all expended unsuccessfully, except by Akaitcho who killed two deer.

By the middle of the month Winter River was firmly frozen over except the
small rapid at its commencement which remained open all the winter. The
ice on the lake was now nearly two feet thick. After the 16th we had a
succession of cold, snowy, and windy weather. We had become anxious to
hear of the arrival of Mr. Back and his party at Fort Providence. The
Indians, who had calculated the period at which a messenger ought to have
returned from thence to be already passed, became impatient when it had
elapsed and, with their usual love of evil augury, tormented us by their
melancholy forebodings. At one time they conjectured that the whole party
had fallen through the ice; at another that they had been waylaid and cut
off by the Dog-Ribs. In vain did we urge the improbability of the former
accident, or the peaceable character of the Dog-Ribs, so little in
conformity with the latt