SHUSHU'S SAGACITY. 155 



camp. It became at last so dark that the drivers 

 could not see the dogs before them, but merely 

 followed ghmpses of the retreating sleighs. Shushu, 

 however, went faster and faster as he neared 

 home, and made but one mistake, overturning the 

 sleigh in a deep snow drift on the banks of the river 

 Crochet, within half a mile of the hut. But this 

 delayed them some time, for they had to sound the 

 snow with poles for the lost line of road, which was 

 so deeply overlaid with drift snow that it was little 

 disgrace to Shushu to lose it there. At last the 

 sleighs were put on the " line of rail " again, and in 

 a few minutes a light streaming from the little parch- 

 ment window of Fort Milton greeted the eyes of the 

 jaded voyageurs. They were received by Milton 

 with vast delight, for he had spent the last few days 

 there alone, waiting anxiously for the return of the 

 expedition, which had been absent twelve days. 

 Being now tolerably supplied with meat, we both 

 remained at home, hoping daily for the return of our 

 men from Bed Biver. Two months had elapsed 

 since their departure, the time they had estimated 

 would be required for the journey ; but we of course 

 anticipated that they would somewhat exceed this. 



We employed ourselves in shooting and trapping 

 in the immediate neighbourhood, and were occasion- 

 ally visited by the Hunter and Misquapamayoo, who 

 failed not to bring us a good supply of moose-meat 

 whenever they were fortunate enough to kill one. 

 This was a most delightful relief to our staple of 

 tough buffalo bull, and the only food we possessed. 



