OF THE POLAR SEA. 



245 



and carried off, as he supposed, by some Dog-ribs, who had passed 



that way. 



The weather becoming daily colder, all the lakes in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the house were completely, and the river partially, 

 frozen over by the middle of the month. The rein-deer now began 

 to quit us for more southerly and better-sheltered pastures. Indeed, 

 their longer residence in our neighbourhood would have been of 

 little service to us, for our ammunition was almost completely ex- 

 pended, although we had dealt it of late with a very sparing hand to 

 the Indians. We had, however, already secured in the store-house 

 the carcasses of one hundred deer, together with one thousand 

 pounds of suet, and some dried meat ; and had, moreover, eighty 

 deer stowed up at various distances from the house. The necessity 

 of employing the men to build a house for themselves, before the 

 weather became too severe, obliged us to put the latter en cache, as 

 the voyagers term it, instead of adopting the more safe plan of 

 bringing them to the house. Putting a deer en cache, means merely 

 protecting it against the wolves, and still more destructive wolve- 

 renes, by heavy loads of wood or stones ; the latter animal, how- 

 ever, sometimes digs underneath the pile, and renders the precau- 

 tion abortive. 



On the 18th, Mr. Back and Mr. Wentzel set out for Fort Pro- 

 vidence, accompanied by Beauparlant, Belanger, and two Indians, 

 Akaiyazza and Thoolezzeh, with their wives, the Little Forehead, 

 and the Smiling Marten. Mr. Back had volunteered to go and 

 make the necessary arrangements for transporting the stores we 

 expected from Cumberland House, and to endeavour to obtain some 

 additional supplies from the establishments at Slave Lake. If any 

 accident should have prevented the arrival of our stores, and the 

 establishments at Moose-deer Island should be unable to supply the 

 deficiency, he was, if he found himself equal to the task, to proceed 

 to Chipewyan. Ammunition was essential to our existence, and a 



