y would afford us the chance of learning
whether Mr. Back had seen the Indians.

DISTRESS SUFFERED AT THAT PLACE.

We now looked round for the means of subsistence and were gratified to
find several deer-skins which had been thrown away during our former
residence. The bones were gathered from the heap of ashes; these with the
skins and the addition of tripe de roche we considered would support us
tolerably well for a time. As to the house, the parchment being torn from
the windows, the apartment we selected for our abode was exposed to all
the rigour of the season. We endeavoured to exclude the wind as much as
possible by placing loose boards against the apertures. The temperature
was now between 15 and 20 degrees below zero. We procured fuel by pulling
up the flooring of the other rooms, and water for cooking by melting the
snow. Whilst we were seated round the fire, singeing the deer-skin for
supper, we were rejoiced by the unexpected entrance of Augustus. He had
followed quite a different course from ours and the circumstance of his
having found his way through a part of the country he had never been in
before must be considered a remarkable proof of sagacity. The unusual
earliness of this winter became manifest to us from the state of things
at this spot. Last year at the same season and still later there had been
very little snow on the ground and we were surrounded by vast herds of
reindeer; now there were but few recent tracks of these animals and the
snow was upwards of two feet deep. Winter River was then open, now it was
frozen two feet thick.

When I arose the following morning my body and limbs were so swollen that
I was unable to walk more than a few yards. Adam was in a still worse
condition, being absolutely incapable of rising without assistance. My
other companions happily experienced this inconvenience in a less degree
and went to collect bones and some tripe de roche which supplied us with
two meals. The bones were quite acrid and the soup extracted from them
excoriated the mouth if taken alone, but it was somewhat milder when
boiled with tripe de roche and we even thought the mixture palatable with
the addition of salt, of which a cask had been fortunately left here in
the spring. Augustus today set two fishing-lines below the rapid. On his
way thither he saw two deer but had not strength to follow them.

On the 13th the wind blew violently from south-east and the snow drifted
so much that the pa