e moose, bear and otter and, after a most harassing march
through thick woods and over fallen trees, we halted a mile to the
westward of Fishing Lake; our provisions were now almost expended; the
weather was cloudy with snow.

On the 27th we crossed two lakes and performed a circuitous route,
frequently crossing high hills to avoid those lakes which were not
frozen; during the day one of the women made a hole through the ice and
caught a fine pike which she gave to us; the Indians would not partake of
it from the idea (as we afterwards learnt) that we should not have
sufficient for ourselves: "We are accustomed to starvation," said they,
"but you are not." In the evening we halted near Rocky Lake. I
accompanied one of the Indians to the summit of a hill where he showed me
a dark horizontal cloud extending to a considerable distance along the
mountains in the perspective, which he said was occasioned by the Great
Slave Lake and was considered as a good guide to all the hunters in the
vicinity. On our return we saw two untenanted bears' dens.

The night was cloudy with heavy snow, yet the following morning we
continued our tedious march; many of the lakes remained still open and
the rocks were high and covered with snow which continued to fall all
day, consequently we effected but a trifling distance and that too with
much difficulty. In the evening we halted, having only performed about
seven miles. One of the Indians gave us a fish which he had caught though
he had nothing for himself; and it was with much trouble that he could be
prevailed upon to partake of it. The night was again cloudy with snow. On
the 29th we set out through deep snow and thick woods and after crossing
two small lakes stopped to breakfast, sending the women on before as they
had already complained of lameness and could not keep pace with the
party. It was not long before we overtook them on the banks of a small
lake which, though infinitely less in magnitude than many we had passed,
yet had not a particle of ice on its surface. It was shoal, had no
visible current, and was surrounded by hills. We had nothing to eat and
were not very near an establishment where food could be procured; however
as we proceeded the lakes were frozen and we quickened our pace, stopping
but twice for the hunters to smoke. Nevertheless the distance we
completed was but trifling, and at night we halted near a lake, the men
being tired and much bruised from constantly fall