OF THE POLAR SEA. 3^7 



room was blocked up, and, by the advice of Mr. Wentzel, a 

 drawing representing a man holding a dagger in a threatening 

 attitude, was affixed to the door, to deter any Indians from breaking 

 it open. We directed our course towards the Dog-rib Rock, but 

 as our companions were loaded with the weight of near one hundred 

 and eighty pounds weight each, we of necessity proceeded at a slow 

 pace. The day was extremely warm, and the musquitoes, whose 

 attacks had hitherto been feeble, issued forth in swarms from the 

 marshes, and were very tormenting. Having walked five miles we 

 encamped near a small cluster of pines about two miles from the 

 Dog-rib Rock. The canoe party had not been seen since they set 

 out. Our hunters went forward to Marten Lake intending to wait 

 for us at a place where two deer were deposited. At nine P.M. the 

 temperature of the air was 63°. 



We resumed our march at an early hour, and crossed several lakes 

 which lay in our course, as the ice enabled the men to drag their 

 burdens on trains formed of sticks and deers' horns, with more ease 

 than they could carry them on their backs. We were kept con- 

 stantly wet by this operation, as the ice had broken near the shores 

 of the lakes, but this inconvenience was not regarded, as the day 

 was unusually warm : the temperature at two P.M. being 82 .J°. At 

 Marten Lake we joined the canoe party, and encamped with them. 

 We had the mortification of learning from our hunters that the 

 meat they had put en cache here, had been destroyed by the wol- 

 verenes, and we had in consequence, to furnish the supper from our 

 scanty stock of dried meat. The wind changed from S.E. to N.E. 

 in the evening, and the weather became very cold, the thermometer 

 being 43° at nine P.M. The few dwarf birches we could collect 

 afforded fire insufficient to keep us warm, and we retired under the 

 covering of our blankets as soon as the supper was despatched. 

 The N.E. breeze rendered the night so extremely cold, that we 

 procured but little sleep, having neither fire nor shelter, for though 



